The Nigeria Police over the weekend posted on its Facebook page a self-indicting video of the face-off of its officers and men with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, and other lawmakers. The Face-off occurred on Thursday. The video, taken from the clips of a Lagos State-based television station, African Independent Television, was titled: “Is there any justification for these?” A few posers were raised by the police as a precursor to watching the content of the video: “Why would anyone use a car to shove/push a uniformed Policeman performing his lawful duty? “Why would any group of persons rough- handle a uniformed Policeman performing his lawful duty and also refuse to submit to security screening into a Government building? “Why would any group of persons destroy Government property paid for with tax payers’ money? “NOTE: Please listen carefully to all the ungentlemanly utterances in this video.” The video starts with policemen, including traffic wardens, searching all cars entering into the National Assembly premises. A little over four minutes into the video, Tambuwal arrived in his official car, accompanied by his retinue of aides, except policemen. Some of the aides, who were dressed like operatives of the Department of State Service, ran to the gate, ostensibly to clear the long queue of vehicles for the Speaker to gain access. When this failed, they ran back to the vehicle to provide human shield around Tambuwal who was till inside his official car. A lawmaker, obviously a member of the House, ran to the front of the queue to also try to pave the way for Tambuwal. But a policeman standing in front of the vehicle refused to budge, with the lawmaker encouraging the driver to “move”. This resulted in what the police described as “shove/push”. However, Tambuwal was still seated in his official vehicle at this stage. It was after this altercation that Tambuwal alighted from his vehicle and walked to the gate, which had then been locked by the policemen, some of whom were decked in riot outfits. When Tambuwal got to the gate, he asked the policemen to allow him in. However, some of the lawmakers with him shook the gate violently in protest against being locked out by the policemen. One of the policemen was to later ask Tambuwal him who he was, pretending he could not recognise him. He replied he was Aminu Tambuwal, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Another inaudible question came from a policeman, with Tambuwal replying that he was at the Assembly to conduct the affairs of the House of Representatives. He equally asked to speak with the most senior policeman on duty. But rather than oblige him this, the policemen walked away. A little while later, one of the policemen came close to the gate with Tambuwal requesting to be let in. Rather than respond, the policeman made a gesture to Tambuwal to hold on. While walking away from the gate, the senior police officer began making a call. At a point, the foot gate was thrown open in circumstances not captured in the video, with Tambuwal and those with him walking in. The video however did not capture the tear gassing of Tambuwal and others with him as they walked the distance between the gate of the National Assembly and the chambers. It only just went on to show the rowdy visit of the President of the Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly, David Mark, to the Green Chambers of the House of Representatives. However, at no point did the video show anyone refusing to be searched before entering the National Assembly. What appeared visible was the fact that as soon as Tambuwal arrived, all movements into the National Assembly came to a halt. The only vehicle, from the video clip, that entered into the National Assembly after Tambuwal arrived on the scene, was the one that perhaps gained entrance when the lawmaker asked it to “move”. Invariably, all vehicular and human movements into the premises of the National Assembly was stopped as soon as the arrival of Tambuwal was noticed. The Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, could not be reached for comments on this development on Saturday night. Eagle Online
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 06:12:19 +0000
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