The Senate, Thursday, lamented the insecurity situation in Nigeria and charged President Bola Tinubu to immediately review security strategies to curtail the unfortunate development.
The Senate’s position was sequel to a motion sponsored by Senator Nasiru, Sani Zangon Daura (APC, Katsina North).
The Red Chamber also sought increased collaboration between security agencies and state governments on matters of security.
The Senate specifically urged Tinubu to direct a thorough review and evaluation of the strategies employed by Security Agencies in the North West and North Central region.
The senate asked the President to consider the deployment of additional security personnel/special task forces to the identified hotspots to ensure the protection of lives and properties.
It charged security agencies to take matters of intelligence gathering more seriously.
It specifically sought “the establishment of a task force to evaluate the effectiveness and implications of negotiating with bandits, conducting a thorough analysis of the short-term gains versus the long-term consequences of such actions”
Apart from this, the upper chamber also called on the Military/Security Agencies to be proactive and innovative in their strategies to secure farmlands so that farmers may return to their farms to ensure increased food production and food security.
Former Senate Majority Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, in his contribution to the debate opened up on how residents were being made to make financial payments to kidnappers.
He said: “The entire North Central and North West are on fire. There is no security anywhere. We pay kidnappers. This thing has become commonplace.
“We don’t see it as news again. It is ubiquitous. Are we going to continue to talk? There is no recommendations being made now that haven’t been recommended in the past.
“We must reach out to the President of this country to look at our recommendations. It is all encompassing. We have wasted a lot of resources at this National Assembly but nothing has been done. We won’t give up on this nation.”
Also, former Senate Deputy Majority Leader, Senator Abdul Ningi, said the president should consider giving time frame to appointments of service chiefs
“The President is the appointing authority. I think he must give a time frame for his Service Chiefs when appointing them. There must be a timeline to IGP and others when they are being appointed. 10,000 bandits can’t be holding over 250million Nigerians to ransome.”
Ningi accused some senior security chiefs of compromise.
He said, “We need to sit down with Mr. President and give him the information that he doesn’t have. We must give them what they needed, there must be timelines. Once they know that they can lose their jobs, they will sit up.
“I have my fear that one of these days, if care isn’t taken, one of these states will be taken over by bandits.
Defending his motion earlier, Daura noted that “Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and Kebbi States have been plagued by escalating banditry attacks, resulting in ‘loss of lives, kidnapping for ransom, displacement of communities and disruption of socio-economic activities”
He also drew attention to the need for collaboration and coordination among state governments, security agencies and relevant stakeholders to develop holistic and sustainable solutions to the challenges posed by banditry in Northwest Nigeria.
Daura expressed concerns that incessant banditry attacks on communities in Northwest region has significantly affected food production and agricultural activities.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Senator Abdulaziz Yar’adua said security agencies should be commended for what they have been doing. At the same time, knowing how they have been losing their lives, in the fight against insurgency.
He said: “I want to support the fact that there is need for a coordinated effort. However, we must realise that our security agencies need the right equipment and what it takes to be able to carry out this coordinated effort.
“So, it is important that we realise that whenever the security agencies come to us here seeking to get this equipment it is very important for us to realise that we have to pass their budgets. One of the impediments they are having is the issue of this envelope budget.
“As I’m talking to you, the supplementary budget of the army, the capital project appropriation is yet to be released to them. So how do you expect them to fight this battle?
“It was lodged in the recurrent expenditure and yet they have not gotten what they need to fight this battle. So, I think it is very important for us to understand.
“The issue of coordination, I think I even raise the motion here on the need for them to improve in their synergy. And if we remember, we invited them here and they won’t conform to us that there is a great effort in ensuring that the synergy among them.”
Sunday Aborisade
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