Police ‘set to restore’ Tambuwal’s security

Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, speaker of the house of representatives, may get his police aides back any moment from now, TheCable understands.

Tambuwal, who on Thursday won the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Sokoto state, was stripped of his security after defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in November.

The police said he had legally lost his position as speaker and the privileges thereof as a result of his defection, but the case is now in court.

However, a source at the police headquarters told TheCable that some security may be restored on the ground that he is now a governorship candidate.

The source, a senior police officer, said: “We still believe the speaker is not entitled to security based on his decision to defect. The constitution is very clear on that and we are defending our position well in court.

“However, since Tambuwal is now a candidate of a major political party in Sokoto,  convention requires that he is protected by the police.

“The federal government takes the security of leading candidates very seriously as such we will restore security to Tambuwal and at the same time provide same for all the leading candidates in all states of the Federation.

“If the police feel at any given time that the security of candidates is under threat,  we are bound by law to come in and provide security.

“In 2011, the governorship candidate of  ANPP was murdered in Borno state very close to the election.

“Since then we reviewed our internal security arrangements and decided to notch security around candidates a bit high.”

It is thought, though, that only a handful of security officers will be restored.