Police defend withdrawal of speaker’s security

Not with stand­ing the outrage that greeted the withdrawal of the security details of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal on Thursday by the Inspec­tor General of Police, Su­leiman Abba, the police insist it acted lawfully and legally.

In fact, to the police, Tam­buwal is no longer the Speak­er of the House as it referred to him as former speaker, implying that the withdrawal was predicated on the legal stance that he abdicated his position for swapping par­ties this week. The police had cited Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution to justify its action on grounds that as a member of the House elected into his position on the plat­form the PDP, he has lost the position for switching to an­other party when there is no division or split in the PDP.
The police in its defence of the action yesterday through a statement by the police said said that: “We had sought le­gal advice before taking the action as the force has the statutory responsibility to up­hold the spirit and letters of the Constitution.
A high ranking police of­ficer who gave the position of Nigeria Police on the is­sue wondered why some elements preferred the force to make a selective enforce­ment of the law while at the same time canvassing for a professional police for the country.
The police said: “Even members of the opposition hailed the acting Inspec­tor General Suleiman Abba when he provided atmo­sphere for the immediate swearing in of acting Gov­ernor of Adamawa State, Mr. Bala James Ngilari follow­ing court ruling for Ahmadu Fintiri to vacate office even when the latter has given indication that he was going to appeal the verdict, the se­nior officer wondered at the double standards of Nigerian opposition figures.”
Police said people should not forget that the institution of Nigeria Police belongs to all Nigerians whether politi­cian or not and therefore, its actions should be respected because it is working for the orderliness of the society no matter which party is in gov­ernment.”...post by expdonaloaded