Defection: Police Withdraw Tambuwal’s Aides …APC Faults Move

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Suleiman Abba, has ordered the withdrawal of policemen attached to the office of the Speaker, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal.
The order is contained in a statement issued by the Force spokesman, Mr Emmanuel Ojukwu, an Acting Commissioner of Police, yesterday in Abuja. The statement said the action was because of Tambuwal’s defection from the PDP to APC.
The police defended its stand, stating that it was done “having regard to the clear provision of section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended’’.
Meanwhile, the I-G said the force had committed adequate resources to the provision of logistics to effectively police the 2015 generation elections.
Ojukwu, in another statement, said Abba gave the assurance when the “ECOWAS Pre-Election Fact Finding Head of Mission to Nigeria’’ paid him a courtesy visit.
It said Abba had assured the team that, the police had made adequate preparations to make the election hitch free, adding that the welfare and training of personnel on election security was on going.
The statement indicated that the head of the ECOWAS mission, former Ghananian President, John Kufour, had informed the police chief that the visit was to appraise the police readiness for a violent-free poll in 2015.
The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) says those calling for the removal of Aminu Tambuwal as the Speaker of the House of Representatives do not know the 1999 Constitution well.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said yesterday in Abuja that there was no provision in the constitution which stated that the speaker of the house must come from the majority.
Mohammed said: ‘’For those who say Tambuwal should resign, I want to refer them to the extant laws and constitutional provision of the house.  ’’It states that if a person leaves a party on the platform by which he came into the house to another party, he should resign, except where it can be proved that there is a crisis or a faction ýwithin his party.
’’Even a blind man today knows about the crisis that led to the ousting of the former Chairman, Bamanga Tukur; seven governors walked out of their convention.  “It led to the creation of the new PDP, led to 37 honourable members and 15 senators decamping to APCý, among other reasons. ”There’s no provision in the constitution that says the speaker must come from the majority but from one of the members,” he said.
The publicity secretary said that Tambuwal became ýthe speaker by ‘’his ability to attract followership. He was not the preferred candidate.
’’The only way to remove him is when two-thirds of members remove him; so we have no law or moral right on why he should resign as speaker.’’
He said the party was elated about the carpet crossing and was glad to lead the legislative arm of government.
He said the fortunes of the party would improve in terms of followership and development.
The speaker had announced his decision to join the APC on the floor of the house on Oct. 28ý and thereafter adjourned sitting of the house to Dec. 3.
Tambuwal was presented to the party at the APC mini convention on Wednesday and given a broom as symbol of the party.

Immediate past chairman, MAN, Rivers/Bayelsa States, Mrs Ekama E. Akpan (right) with Total Manager, Enterprise Development, Philippe Desrial (left) during 30th Annual General Meeting of MAN Rivers/Bayelsa States, at Atrium along Stadium Road, Port Harcourt recently. Photo: Egberi A. Sampson