of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon
Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, weeks after it was withdrawn
in the wake of his defection from the PDP to the All
Progressives Congress (APC).
A source at the Nigeria police headquarters in Abuja indicate
that the police will hinge its decision on the emergence of
Tambuwal as the governorship candidate for the APC in the
forthcoming general election.
"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 the Police
protects him. 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 feels at any given time that the security of
candidates is under threat, we are bound by law to come in
and provide security. If you recall really well, the
governorship candidate of the then ruling ANPP was
murdered in Borno very close to the election, since then we
reviewed our internal security arrangements and decided to
notch security around candidates a bit high," the source
stated.
When asked if the same number of men earlier withdrawn
from Tambuwal will be restored, the source declined to
answer, saying only that the police high command will
determine such a decision.
Reports indicate that the Federal Government has directed
all security agencies to ensure zero casualties especially of
candidates for the forthcoming elections. The directive is
said to be boosted by recent success of the government
troops in their fight against the insurgency in the North-
Eastern part of the country.
Speaker Tambuwal's office could not be reached for
comments.
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