Senate Pleas Exemption from VIPs Security Withdrawal

Joshua ChuwangDecember 12, 20252 Mins read16

The Nigerian Senate has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to exempt its members from the presidential directive to withdraw police personnel from VIPs.

Senator Abdul Ningi, representing Kebbi Central, made his complaint known to the house in a plenary presided over by the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, on Wednesday. The lawmaker stated that this decision poses a threat to their safety, hence they should be allowed to retain their security personnel.

The Kebbi Senator discovered that the officers assigned to him had been removed recently, yet children of political office holders still move about with heavy convoys.

Mr Jibrin joined the appeal and disclosed that the Senate leadership had already met and would table an appeal to the President to review this order and exempt lawmakers from the directive.

In a recent development, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has condemned the large security convoy and escorts of Seyi Tinubu, the son of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

I’ve just seen something I can’t believe, I don’t understand, he recalled telling the official. “Do you mean that a child of the head of state goes around with an army for his protection or whatever? I couldn’t believe it.

Mr Soyinka said he counted at least “15 or so heavily armed to the teeth” security officials who accompanied the President’s son at a hotel in Ikoyi, Lagos. The Literature Scholar spoke while presenting an honorary award to Odia Ofeimun, a poet and activist honoured by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Later, I pursued investigative journalism. And I enquired, and I found that apparently, this is how this young man goes around with his battalion, his heavily armed soldiers, he added. Let’s not overdo things.

Arguments have ensued weeks after the President directed that police personnel be withdrawn from VIPs in the country to expand the security workforce and tackle the nation’s challenges of banditry and terrorism.

The insecurity concerns in the nation now wear a different face and identity, as it has not gone unnoticed by the international media, with the US playing as a major third party in this menace. The nation’s security apparatus is overstretched because of a lack of manpower, yet government officials have personal security officers assigned to protect them and their families.

This directive, if strictly adhered to, will see government officials and their families, including Seyi Tinubu, sternly stripped of their security escorts.