Tambuwal's Security 'to be Restored'

Police authorities are set to reinstate the security detail of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, weeks after they were withdrawn in the wake of his defection from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress APC.Reports from Police Headquarters in Abuja indicate that the Police will hinge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.

The Speaker defeated four other contestants to emerge Sokoto APC governorship flag-bearer and will now slug it out with candidates from other parties at the February 2015 gubernatorial elections to be held across the country.

A Police source stated: "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 the 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 added.

When asked if the same number of men earlier withdrawn from Tambuwal will be restored, the source declined to answer, saying only that such a decision will be determined by the Police high command.

Reports indicate that the Federal Government has directed all security agencies to ensure zero casualty 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 insurgency in the North-Eastern part of the country.

Source: ThisDay