The order withdrawing the security details attached to the Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, by the acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Suleiman Abba has been condemned.

A statement yesterday by the spokesman of the Force, acting Commissioner of Police (CP) Emmanuel Ojukwu, said the order was given because the Speaker defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The police said its decision relied on the provision of Section 68(1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
The statement reads: “In view of the recent defection by the Right Honourable Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, CFR, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressive 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.”
However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) called on President Goodluck Jonathan to show better understanding of democracy by restoring the police security details of the Speaker.
In a statement by its Publicity Secretary Lai Mohammed yesterday, the party described the announcement of the withdrawal of the Speaker’s security details by the IGP as a usurpation of the role of the judiciary by the Inspector General of Police.
The Speaker, through his media aide, Imam Imam, said he was shocked at the action of the IGP by premising the withdrawal to the Speaker’s defection from PDP to APC.
“Nothing can be further from the truth. The implication of the Inspector General of Police’s statement is that as sanction for this alleged constitutional breach, he has removed Rt Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal from office of Speaker House of Representatives,” Imam said.
Also the National Chairman of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Comrade Peter Ameh, told reporters yesterday in Abuja at the end of the party’s emergency National Working Committee (NWC) meeting that it is wrong to politicize the security of any Nigerian let alone the Speaker, and the withdrawn security details should be immediately restored.
In his reaction, Minority Whip Samson Osagie (APC, Edo) said the action “smacks of crash ignorance of the constitution and parliamentary convention on the part of the Nigeria Police to declare that our own Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the Peoples Speaker has ceased to be Speaker.”
Rep Aliyu Sani Madaki (APC, Kano) said “It’s not surprising. This is a government that is used to impunity. They know the law and they break it. It was really expected. They had sworn to uphold the constitution, but they break it.”
An APC member from Katsina State, Rep Ibrahim Babangida Mahuta, said by their action, security agencies have now politicised themselves.
Besides, Rep Bimbo Daramola (APC, Ekiti), said “I’m not shocked at all. They didn’t disappoint me. This administration has a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most brazen in acts of impunity, recklessness that border on an attitude of ‘you can go to blazes!”
For his part, Rep Aminu Suleiman (APC, Kano) described the action as “the height of irresponsibility and a classical proof of personalisation of state apparatus.”
Also in condemning the withdrawal of the security details, the Nigeria Voters Assembly (VOTAS) and the Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC) called for the reversal of the decision.
In separate statements yesterday, VOTAS President, Mashood Erubami, and CSNAC Chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, said the action portends serious danger to democracy and an indication of the danger that lies ahead of the 2015 election.