Indications have emerged that the Directorate of State Services (DSS) will soon initiate investigation into the allegation of perjury and felony against the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege.

On Friday, a coalition of civil societies groups under the aegis of the Guardians of Democracy and Development, and Partners for Legislative Agenda for Nigeria (PLAN) submitted a petition to the Director General of DSS, Yusuf Bichi, on the matter.

Convener of the group, Solomon Adodo, argued that Omo-Agege’s continued stay in the Senate would denigrate the red chamber before the international body of legislators.

According to Adodo, who was accompanied by dozens of youth groups, Omo-Agege cannot confidently and freely lead a team of legislators to Capitol Hill for any meeting with the United States Senate, owing to the weight of the allegation against him.

He noted: “The coalition of civil society groups hereby urge you to investigate this matter, and possibly facilitate the prosecution of the senator, if found to have committed perjury on his way to the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The group claimed that Omo-Agege concealed incriminating information against him from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to participate in the general elections, contrary to constitutional provisions that produced him as senator representing Delta Central, thereby paving the way for his emergence as Deputy President of the Senate.

It brandished placards with inscriptions as ‘Senator Ovie Omo-Agege should be prosecuted’, ‘Sen. Omo-Agege has misled INEC by concealing conviction information from it’, ‘Don’t destroy our Senate with ex-convict, join us now to save our Senate from forgers of documents’, ‘DSS act now, the good people of Nigeria must rise to save our Senate from Omo-Agege’.

Last week, Omo-Agege, who described the rights group as a band of sponsored individuals bent on tarnishing his reputation, denied the allegations.

The group claimed that in 1998, one Augustine Ovie Omo-Agege was suspended from the practice of law with probation for three years by the Supreme Court of the State of California, having been convicted for forgery of cheques on March 7, 1992 in violation of Penal Code Section 470.

The convicted Augustine Ovie Omo-Agege, it insisted, is the same Ovie Omo-Agege in the Senate.

Among the allegations was serial perjury in the application for Driver’s License in violation of Penal Code 118, in1993. (The Guardian)

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