According to dailypost, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal said he is ready to face the Nigeria Police.
The speaker was reacting to the story
that the Inspector General of Police has ordered that he, Speaker, be invited
to the Force Headquarters and that he should be arrested if he resisted.
Tanbuwal in a statement signed by his
media aide, Imam Imam on Saturday, promised to honour the date with the police
authorities but cautioned the police to remain politically neutral.
The attention of the Hon Speaker, House of Representatives,
Rt Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal CFR, has been drawn to publications in the media
to the effect that the Inspector General of Police has ordered that he,
Speaker, be invited to the Force Headquarters and that he be arrested if he
resisted.
The Honourable Speaker wishes to express
that he is a law abiding citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who has no
immunity against arrest and prosecution except privileges as may be provided by
the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act.
Accordingly, the Hon Speaker states
for the records that he is available, ready and willing to answer any lawful
invitation from any of the Security agencies on any matter that may require his
attention.
November 2014 to preside over the Special Session of the House on the
State of Emergency Extension requested by Mr President, for which he had
recalled members from their working recess.
Most disgraceful is the false statement later issued by the Police in
which they claimed that in the lawful exercise of their duties “Hon Aminu
Tambuwal CFR, arrived the venue with a motley crowd, who broke the cordon,
assaulted the Police and evaded due process”. This blatant falsehood coming
from a law enforcement agency, that is expected to be neutral and lawful, is
unfortunate, to say the least.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Hon Speaker came to National Assembly
accompanied by Hon Members as is customary during any sitting of the House.
They all came with their official vehicles but were disallowed from driving
into the premises. Certainly Hon Members, who arrived the precinct of the
National Assembly in response to a call to perform an urgent, critical national
assignment, cannot be described by any self-respecting institution as “a motley
crowd”.
It is important to remind the Nigeria Police Force that as a public
institution that provides common services for all the arms of government, they
must not allow themselves to be used by one of the arms to undermine the
others”
