THE STORY CONTS: Nigeria’s Inspector General of police is said to have ordered the arrest of Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal to come and explain his role in the gate climbing incident, where he broke police siege on the Assembly complex. The order was given following a showdown between the police and members of the House of Representatives on Thursday, after the police blocked the entrance to the National Assembly and prevented the Speaker from gaining entrance, forcing some of the lawmakers who were with him to scale the locked gate and go into the chambers of the House of Representatives, where they stalled alleged plans to begin impeachment proceedings against the Speaker. Sources at the police headquarters revealed that a similar arrest order had been issued by the Department of State Security (DSS). According to the sources, the Inspector General gave the order for Tambuwal’s arrest after a meeting with Vice President Namadi Sambo and the National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki at the Presidential Villa, yesterday. “I can confirm to you that the order for his arrest has been given today (Friday). The signal from the IG’s office specifically directed the FCT and Sokoto State commissioners of Police to serve Tambuwal with notice of invitation to the force headquarters and if he resists, he should be arrested immediately. The involvement of the Sokoto commissioner of police is because the Speaker was sighted in Sokoto yesterday where he picked the APC’s governorship form for the forthcoming election. It was assumed that he was out of Abuja and as such, other police divisions were involved in the matter. “ Sources privy to details of the meeting in the Villa said both the Sambo and Dasuki berated the inspector general for the failure of his men to prevent the Speaker from gaining access into the National Assembly premises. “The NSA was particularly angry and told the IG in clear terms that he doesn’t know his job. He asked how the Speaker and the members broke a cordon put in place by the FCT police commissioner. The NSA then made it clear that the police authorities must rectify the anomalies or they would face the consequences. The promised that Tambuwal would be arrested for questioning,” the source added. Efforts to get a confirmation of the arrest orders were however unsuccessful as the police and DSS authorities did not respond to phone calls and text messages to their mobile phone numbers and did not go through, respectively. A phone call and text message to the IGP’s was also not responded to. Reacting to the news of his planned arrest yesterday, Tambuwal noted that he is a law abiding citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who has no immunity against arrest and prosecution except privileges as may be provided by the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act. In a statement by his media aide, the speaker said as a law abiding citizen, he will honour the police invitation. See full text of the statement below: The attention of the Hon Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal CFR, has been drawn to publications in the media to the effect that the Inspector General of Police has ordered that he, Speaker, be invited to the Force Headquarters and that he be arrested if he resisted. The Honorable Speaker wishes to state that he is a law abiding citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who has no immunity against arrest and prosecution except privileges as may be provided by the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act. Accordingly , the Hon Speaker states for the records that he is available, ready and willing to answer any lawful invitation from any of the Security agencies on any matter for which they may require his attention. The Speaker expresses dismay at the unprofessional conduct of the Nigerian Police in the attempt to stop him from accessing the House of Representatives chambers on the 20th November 2014 to preside over the Special Session of the House on the State of Emergency Extension requested by Mr President, for which he had recalled members from their working recess. Most disgraceful is the false statement later issued by the Police in which they claimed that in the lawful exercise of their duties “ Alh Aminu Tambuwal CFR, arrived the venue with a motley crowd,who broke the cordon, assaulted the Police and evaded due process”. This blatant falsehood coming from a law enforcement agency, that is expected to be neutral and lawful, is unfortunate, to say the least. For the avoidance of doubt, the Hon Speaker came to National Assembly accompanied by Hon Members as is customary during any sitting of the House. They all came with their official vehicles but were disallowed from driving into the premises. Certainly Hon Members, who arrived the precinct of the National Assembly in response to a call to perform an urgent, critical national assignment, cannot be described by any self respecting institution as “a motley crowd “ It is important to remind the Nigeria Police Force that as a public institution that provides common services for all the arms of government, they must not allow themselves to be used by one of the arms to undermine the others. Malam Imam Imam @imamdimam Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairsto the Hon Speaker
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 10:46:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015