The Inspector General of Police, (IGP) Suleiman Abba, has directed the immediate withdrawal of Police orderlies and Police security earlier attached to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal.

According to him, “in view of the recent defection by the Right Honourable Aminu Waziri Tanbuwal, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), and having regard to the clear provision of section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has redeployed its personnel attached to his office.”

Section 68. (1) (g) states: “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall

vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if: being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before

the expiration of the period for which that House was elected; Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously

a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored”.

He added however that, “should the former number four citizen get voted in as the speaker again through his present party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), then the law can permit us to restore his security and orderlies, but until then, section 68(1)(g) must take pre-imminence.”

It would be recalled that on August 21, 2003, a circular from the office of the then Chief of Staff to the Nigerian President, General Abdullahi Mohammed, had ordered the withdrawal of police security to certain categories of public officers due to abuses to which the security personnel had been subjected.

Mohammed, in his circular, stated that the blanket withdrawal of police guards, ADCs, and police orderlies attached to top government functionaries would affect Special Advisers/Senior Special Assistants to the President and Vice President, Governor of the Central Bank, Deputy National Security Adviser, State Commissioners, Principal Staff Officers to the President and Vice President, Judges of the Federal High Court, Judges of FCT and State High Courts. Others affected are Principal Staff Officers to state governors, secretaries to state governments, states’ heads of service, political appointees of state governments, Khadis of Sharia Courts of Appeal, Judges of Customary Court of Appeal, Heads of parastatals and extra-ministerial departments, chairmen and members of federal executive bodies and commissioners and agencies as well as permanent secretaries at federal and state levels.

The only officials who were allowed to enjoy police protection rights then according to the circular were the President, Vice-President, State Governors, Chief Justice of the Federation, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of Service, Deputy Governors, Ministers and local government chairmen. Others are President of the Court of Appeal, Senate President and his deputy, Speaker of the House of Representatives and his deputy, Speakers of the State Houses of Assembly as well as their deputies.

Also, some time in that same year, Police orderlies and security were withdrawn from the then governor of Anambra State, Chris Ngige. Also, Police security was withdrawn from Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.

Our source in the IGP office said the directive, however, caught Tambuwal unawares prompting him to refuse to leave his home in Abuja. The decision had also triggered a wide reaction from both the new party of the former speaker and other concerned members of the public who criticized government and the police authorities for what they described as endangering the lives of the former number four citizen of Nigeria.