By Femi Fani-Kayode
Clarke Condemns Withdrawal Of Tambuwal’s Security Detail
A legal practitioner, Mr Robert Clarke (SAN), has condemned the decision taken by the Inspector General of Police, Mr Suleiman Abba, to strip the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Aminu Tambuwal, of his security details.
Speaking to Channels Television in an exclusive interview, Mr Clarke said “it is only the members of the House of Representatives that can impeach the Speaker”, adding that “the police erred by stripping the number four citizen of the country of his security apparatus.
“There are five very important citizens in Nigeria, starting from the President, the Vice President, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House and the Chief Justice of the Federation; these five posts are security posts; the individuals do not matter, it is the position they are holding that matters.
“Therefore, the country, under the constitution, is enjoined to give them security at all time”, he said.
He noted that Mr Tambuwal cited problems within the PDP in his state- Sokoto- as reason for decamping to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), adding that “the governor of his state has decamped to the APC, many of his commissioners have decamped from PDP to APC and many party members have decamped from PDP to APC in Sokoto, so there is a division within the PDP in Sokoto State”, he maintained.
He advised the police to stick to law enforcement and not interpretation of the constitution, noting that “in all civilised countries, police officers have to keep the law in the land and enforce the law. There is no constitutional provision which allows a policeman or the head of the police to determine what the law is.
“ So when the police came and said under Section 68 (1), they are withdrawing the security apparatus; they don’t have that constitutional right”, he said.
