Police authorities are set to reinstate the security details of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, weeks after it was withdrawn in the wake of his defection from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).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.
Tambuwal defeated four other contestants to emerge Sokoto APC governorship flagbearer yesterday and will now slug it out with candidates from other political parties next February during Nigeria's elections.
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When asked if the same number of men earlier withdrawn from Tambuwal will be restored, the source declined to answer, saying only that the police high command will determine such a decision.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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