Fresh facts emerged Tuesday night on how Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, escaped the plot by the security agencies to prevent him from making it to the National Assembly in order to abort the plan by many lawmakers to defect from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Although Saraki told his colleagues at the Senate chambers Tuesday that “it was just by the intervention of the Almighty God’’ that he was able to make it to the National Assembly, his close aide told THISDAY that he made it because, “the Senate president was smarter than the security agencies’’.

The source, who pleaded anonymity, said Saraki was alerted about the ‘’evil plans’’ by the security agencies, when on Monday, at about 8p.m., he received a letter, asking him to report to the police over the Offa robbery case, which was said to have been concluded before now.

Apparently acting on security report about the plans by security agencies to prevent him and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, from presiding over the sitting Tuesday, the Senate president was said to have left his Maitama residence late Monday night and moved to a ‘’house very close to the National Assembly,’’ even though another source said Saraki slept in the National Assembly.

To divert the security agents’ attention, his aides, which included security men, were said to have left Saraki’s residence in Maitama, Abuja about 8:30a.m. in a convoy, and apparently acting the script of their bosses, the police were said to have blocked the convoy, thinking the Senate president was inside his official car.

But they were wrong, as Saraki was said to have entered the National Assembly before then, and settled down in one of the offices, waiting for his colleagues to arrive the chambers.

When he was sure that many of the senators sympathetic to his political course were more in numbers in the chambers, the Senate president, spotting white flowing Agbada, entered his office about 10:35a.m. and later moved to the chambers at exactly 10:40a.m., the source said.

Saraki eventually presided over the Senate and announced the defection of 14 senators from the APC.

Relaying his experience in the hands of security operatives, who laid siege to his house Tuesday to his colleagues, the Senate president said the plenary would not have held if not for his preparation.

He said: “The road leading to my place was cordoned off and all cars coming in and out as early as 6:30 were being stopped and you have to come down. My convoy was stopped from moving. Given something that one was prepared for, I had my own car too. So the deputy senate president called me and said he could not come here.

“That’s the situation why the DSP (Ekweremadu) could not come here and I was already going somewhere else. If not, this plenary would not have been able to hold today. So I had to come here.”

Condemning the siege, he said it was God that made him escape it.

He added: “But as you all rightly said, if one of our colleagues cannot come out for no fault of his, I don’t see how we can continue to sit and ignore the fact that a presiding officer cannot be here. And if it was by the plan, I too, would not be here.

“It was just by the intervention of the Almighty God that I was able to get myself here.”

The security agencies early Tuesday morning laid siege to the homes of Saraki and Ekweremadu in Abuja, preventing both vehicular and human movement in and out of the roads leading to their houses.

As part of the security agencies’ plot, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on its part, had also invited the Deputy Senate President over alleged money laundering.

The anti-graft agency, in a letter of invitation dated July 24 and signed by the Director of Operations, Mohammed Abba, had invited the Deputy Senate President to report to the commission’s office same Tuesday for “clarification”.

The EFCC claimed it was “investigating activities case of conspiracy, abuse of office and money laundering” in which his name featured prominently and the need to obtain certain clarifications from him.

The letter further stated: “In view of the above, you are kindly requested to report and interview the undersigned at 5 Fomela Street, Off Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse II Abuja on Tuesday, 24th July, 2018 at 10a.m. prompt.