Feelers from the Police Headquarters in Abuja indicated that the IG of
Police, Abba Sulaiman has ordered the arrest of the Speaker of the House
of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
The obnoxious order was given following a showdown between the police
and members of the House of Reps 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, where they
stalled plans to begin impeachment proceedings against the popular
Speaker.
"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 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."
A sources at the police headquarters told LEADERSHIP that a similar arrest order had been issued by the SSS.
Sources privy to details of the meeting in the Villa said both VP Sambo
and the NSA Sambo Dasuki berated the IGP for failure of his men to
prevent Tambuwal from gaining access into National Assembly.
“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. He promised that Tambuwal would be arrested
for questioning,” the source added.
Reacting to the news of his planned arrest by the IG, Tambuwal noted
that he is a law abiding citizen who has no immunity against arrest and
prosecution except privileges as may be provided by the Legislative
Powers and Privileges Act.
He said 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.
Meanwhile, but for the resoluteness of the Sergeant-at-arms at the
National Assembly who insisted that he would only handover the mace of
office to the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon Aminu Tambuwal, the
embattled Speaker would have lost his job on Thursday.
This was part of strategies by the PDP, working on cohorts with the
executive to impeach the Speaker who recently decamped to major
opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to a source privy to the development, the acting
Sergeant-at-arms at the National Assembly, Mr. Ibrahim Ndako was asked
to surrender the mace but he had refused, insisting that Tambuwal is
still the Speaker of the House and he would not release the mace to any
other person but him.
“As part of their strategy, the police tried to seize the mace from the
sergeant-at-arms but he refused to give it to them. If they got it, it
would have made things a lot easier for them. When they failed to compel
him to handover the mace to them, they detained him overnight from
Wednesday, and only released him on Thursday after crisis erupted at the
National Assembly.
“What happened
at the National Assembly became necessary following the desperation of
the PDP and the federal government to remove the Speaker from office by
all means," a source revealed.
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