The National Assembly yesterday lampooned the federal government over the spate of killings across the country, saying there was total leadership failure in the handling of security challenges in Nigeria. The senators, who spoke on the floor of the Senate, expressed anger, frustration and disillusionment, with a call on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently sack all the security chiefs, alleging that they had lost ideas. According to the senators, there is need for the security chiefs to be replaced in order to inject fresh blood, ideas and vigour in the fight against the wanton killings in the land.
The senators who spoke separately on the renewed killings by herdsmen and criminal militia groups, said because Nigerians were increasingly becoming disappointed and frustrated over government’s failings and inactions on the insecurity in the land, democracy had become endangered. They also noted that as lawmakers, they were tired of observing a minute silence almost everyday in honour of those killed. The position of the senators came up yesterday as contributions to a motion through a point of Order by Senator Suleiman Adokwe, PDP, Nasarawa South, on the killings in his senatorial district.
The Senate, after adopting the motion by Senator Adokwe, also asked the President to seek immediate help from the international community to curb the security problems in Nigeria, just as the lawmakers observed a minute silence in honour of 32 lives lost in Nasarawa. The senators also urged President Buhari to direct the armed forces and other security operatives to come to the aid of the citizens and restore normalcy all over the country and mandated the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on the review of the security infrastructure in the country to investigate the matter.
In his contribution, Senator Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, APC, Lagos West, noted that there was the urgent need to inject fresh ideas into how the security problems in the country could be remedied, adding no where was safe in the country anymore. Adeola, who called for the immediate removal, from office, of all the service chiefs, said the security chiefs have failed to proffer solutions to incessant insecurity involving loss of hundreds of lives of Nigerians. He said: “I want to commend the leadership of the Senate for the Security Summit it organised recently and the report and recommendations. But so far, the security situation has not improved and what the President needs at this time is fresh ideas on how to tackle numerous security challenges confronting the nation.”
He argued that the only way to get fresh ideas for the President to address the security challenges was to remove the incumbent service chiefs to give room for those with fresh ideas. “We know the way the military organisations operate. Those with fresh ideas dare not come out against their superiors or else they risk premature retirement from service. So the current service chiefs should go to allow officers with fresh ideas address our alarming security issues,” he added. Also in his contribution, Senator Jeremiah Useni, PDP, Plateau South East, identified the constant clashes among security agencies as part of the security problems, asking that heads of such agencies be removed to pave way for more harmonious relationship among security agencies.
Earlier in his presentation, Senator Adokwe said: “Through out the weekend and up to the moment that I am speaking, herdsmen have unleashed terrorism and mayhem on the people of my senatorial district, leaving many dead bodies, numerous wounded persons and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons. The victims are largely the Tiv speaking ethnic nationalities with a reported dead toll of 32 persons and we are still counting.
Source: Vanguard
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