Fresh reports indicate that it was the security operatives attached to the Department of the State Security (DSS) that conducted a search on the official vehicle of Hon. Aminu Tambuwal the Speaker, House of Representatives on Monday not soldiers.
Tambuwal was allegedly harassed in Kaduna 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.
According to reports from Leadership, Soldiers stopped the speaker’s motorcade and insisted on searching his official vehicle paying no attention to 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.
Reacting to the incident, Tambuwal’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Imam Imam said:
“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”.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) has since tendered a formal apology to the Speaker over the alleged harassment.
However, the claim that the army were the operatives who conducted the stop and search have been debunked by a top official , who stated that it was not the responsibility of the Army to conduct the search at the venue of that programme , rather it was security operatives attached to the Department of the State Security (DSS).
“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 were the road 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.”
