While many see the police’s summon as a ploy to stop Mr Saraki from leaving the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC); others, however, want him to honour the invitation as a citizen of the country.
The police, in a statement on Monday, summoned Mr Saraki to its Guzape station by 8 a.m. on Tuesday over the killing of 31 persons following an armed robbery attack in his home state, Kwara.
The police said 31 persons were killed in the April 5 Offa attack; and that suspects arrested in the attack confessed to being sponsored by Mr Saraki. The police described it as the most deadly armed robbery in the country’s history.
In his reaction earlier, Mr Saraki stated that the invitation to him by the police is an afterthought which is designed to achieve political purpose.
In a series of tweets and an official statement, he described the invitation as a plot aimed at compelling him and his associates to stay in a party “where members are criminalised without just cause”.
He also said the summon was a plot to keep him where injustice is perpetrated at the highest level and where there is no respect for constitutionalism, saying it is an exercise in futility and it will fail.
Mr Saraki also said he was informed that the police invitation was planned by the IGP as a ploy to stop an alleged plan by some senators and House of Representatives members from defecting from the APC. He is believed to be the arrowhead in the plan.
According to him, it was also said that if he was detained between Tuesday and Wednesday, “that will abort the so-called defection plan.”
By Tuesday morning, police had laid siege on Mr Saraki’s home as well as that of his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.
