It was the security operatives attached to the Department of the State Security (DSS) that conducted a search on the official car of the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal and not soldiers after all.
The Speaker’s alleged harassment took place in Kaduna on Monday while his motorcade was driving into Hotel 17, the venue of an international conference on security in West and Central Africa, organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
Soldiers had reportedly stopped the motorcade and insisted on searching the Speaker’s official car, ignoring protests by Tambuwal’s security aides. The Speaker later stormed out of the car in anger and opted to trek to the venue, abandoning the vehicle for the soldiers.
“In spite of recognising the Speaker, the soldiers insisted on searching his official car. This was an affront on the office of the sSpeaker, the number four citizen of this country and the institution of the legislature”, Tambuwal’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Imam Imam, reportedly reacted.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) has formally apologised to the Speaker over the alleged harassment. However, checks conducted within the security agencies have revealed that the soldiers were not in charge of the stop and search at the venue of the conference but the SSS operatives.
“There was no way any soldier could have harassed the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon Tambuwal because it was not the responsibility of the Army to conduct the stop and search at the venue of that programme.
“Those who claimed it was soldiers who allegedly harassed him did not get the story right,” a top military officer who was at the event explained.
According to him, “it is true soldiers are the roads that lead to the venue but only the DSS operatives were assigned the responsibility to search all vehicles entering into the hotel and not the soldiers and I challenge anybody to produce the footages of the incident for us to see.”
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Source: Leadership
