The Nigeria Police Force has Thursday, October 30, 2014 given reasons for why it withdrew the security detail assigned to Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal.
In a statement made available to The Trent and signed by Emmanuel C. S. Ojuwkwu, the Force Public Relations Officer the Police said it was because of his defection from the People Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressive Congress (APC) and that such a move was in clear violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The statement said:
In view of the recent defection by the Right Honourable Aminu Waziri Tanbuwal, CFR, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, from the People Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressive Congress (APC), and having regard to the clear provision of section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has redeployed its personnel attached to his office.
For clarity, the section of the Constitution quoted in the statement says:
68. (1) A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if –(g) being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected;
Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored; or
