Police IG orders Arrest of Tambuwal; Speaker Reacts

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.