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The All Progressives Congress has described the police invasion of the National Assembly on Thursday last week as an equivalent of a coup, calling for an independent inquiry to determine who ordered the invasion and for what purpose.

The party believes that this will help to prevent a recurrence and also meting out the necessary punishment to those behind the invasion.

In a statement in Lagos on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said using weapons to attack an arm of government and preventing it from carrying out its functions amounted to a coup.

It described the tear gas allegedly fired into the National Assembly by policemen as a chemical weapon.

APC said, We are demanding the independent inquiry in view of the seriousness of the armed attack on the National Assembly and the danger it poses to our democracy. We are also alerting the international community to the happenings in Nigeria and urging them to show interest because of their investment in the countrys democracy.

The tepid denial by the Presidency of its involvement in the senseless attack is not enough to stop the finger-pointing at it (Presidency), especially because no one, not even the Inspector General of Police, will have the temerity to stop the nations number four citizen from entering the National Assembly without an express order from the President.

This is why we have continuously held President (Goodluck Jonathan) responsible for last weeks show of shame.

It noted that the IG was a tool in the hands of a President that had perhaps done more than any other President before him to truncate the nations democracy.

The statement added, We make bold to say that President Jonathan has worked assiduously to put Nigerias democracy in jeopardy, whether in Rivers, where he backed a misguided Police Commissioner to usurp the constitutional duties of an elected Governor, or in Ekiti State, where he has so far refused to condemn the so-called impeachment of the Speaker by seven Peoples Democratic Party members in a 26-member House of Assembly.

Also, apart from the half-hearted and belated denial, the President has not condemned the attack on the National Assembly by the police. A President that is conversant with the dictates of the constitution, which he swore an oath to protect, would have gone ahead to make a national broadcast to condemn the police invasion of the Assembly and even promised to get to the root of the matter.

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APC says House invasion, a coup, seeks independent probe