Ndume asks Tinubu to extend policemen withdrawal to NASS, says some lawmakers have cops guiding wives, children

Senator Ali Ndume, the lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District, has appeal to the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to extend the withdrawal of police officers on VIP duties to the National Assembly,

Ndume, who is reacting to the presidential’s directive on withdrawal of policemen on VIP duties due to growing Insecurity across the country, said that while the number of police personnel guarding NASS was too much, he alleged that some of his colleagues had police officers attached to their wives and children, a situation he said was insulting.

He said there would be no need to attach police officers to personalities in Abuja if the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were secure.

“I thought today I would not see so many police in the National Assembly, but there are still crowded police in the National Assembly. So I don’t know what the IGP is talking about.

“You can’t imagine what is happening. Some of our colleagues, some ministers have police [officers] attached to their wives. What is their business with that? [They] have police attached to their children,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.

“I saw some people, somebody, I don’t want to mention the name, but one of these politically exposed persons, his own son, who is mature, is moving with a convoy.

“It’s not, it’s an insult, not abuse. I went to one of my colleagues’ house after dinner and saw more than 10 police [officers]. He’s even my junior in the National Assembly.

“Some of them, if you see them coming, you pull back thinking that maybe it’s the President or the Vice President that is coming,” he added.

Ndume also said that with a secure FCT, even President Bola Tinubu could drive himself and not need to move with a large convoy.

“You can see even the President, the convoy that the President goes about with is too much. Secure Abuja, and the President can even drive out himself, but when you secure personalities, and this is what is happening in Nigeria, then others, common people, as we call them, become vulnerable, and we don’t care.

“So if you secure Abuja, then you can drive at night, and let me tell you this is what is happening in most countries,” he added.

When reminded that his suggestion would include the withdrawal of the policemen attached to him, the Borno lawmaker said, “I don’t have a police officer; I only have an orderly.

“One of the top policemen and the security agencies thought I was not only a politically exposed person, but my life was then at risk, so three policemen were attached to me, but that was a big crowd to me. I refused.

“And I insisted that if there is going to be any attachment of police to me, it should be an orderly, and you know why? Because I’m an accused person.

“So I need that plain-clothed police [officer] by me so that he will now testify as to even my movement as to who I relate to.
“But that to protect me, no.”

The Borno lawmaker said that though the steps taken by Tinubu to address insecurity were commendable, the President needed to do more.

While faulting Senator Godswill Akpabio’s claim that Nigeria has an effective satellite monitoring system, and lamenting the spate of abductions, the senator said that there was a need for Nigeria to procure more satellites for effective monitoring.

“The US has more than 8,500 satellites out there. We only have four. If we have satellites and if we have that capacity or capability, as he [Senate President] said, then why didn’t we locate the girls?

“And, let me tell you before I go further, even as I’m speaking to you, 13 of our teenage girls were abducted by ISWAP in my constituency since Friday, I think or Saturday up to now, no news.”

Speaking further, the lawmaker added, “Only one of the married women among them escaped, and we are calling. We have been shouting. We have no information now.

“General Uba is missing in action, and up to now nobody can say whether he’s dead or alive. I hear Mr. President, you know, in his speech, he’s accepted that he’s dead, but if he’s dead, where is the dead body?”

In view of mounting security challenges, President Tinubu had ordered the withdrawal of police personnel attached to VIPs.

Tinubu had while declaring a security emergency on Wednesday, said that the officers being withdrawn from VIP guard duties should undergo “crash training” to debrief them and deliver more efficient police services when deployed to security-challenged areas of the country.

In response to the directive, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, said that 11,566 police personnel had been recalled, adding that the redeployment of the affected personnel to underserved communities had since commenced.

“It is important to emphasise that this action is a patriotic, forward-looking, and operationally prudent measure designed to strengthen our manpower capacity for critical frontline policing functions,” Egbetokun said during a strategic officers conference on Thursday.

Source: Channels TV