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From Fred Itua, Abuja
The Senate has charged President Bola Tinubu to immediately review the government’s security strategies to curtail the rising wave of insecurity across the country.
While adopting a motion sponsored by Nasiru, Sani Zangon Daura (APC, Katsina North), the Senate also pushed for increased collaboration between the security agencies and the state governments on matters of security.
It specifically urged President Tinubu to direct a thorough review and evaluation of the strategies employed by security agencies in the regions and consider the deployment of additional security personnel/special task force to the identified hotspots to ensure the protection of lives and properties.
The Senate also charged the security agencies to take matters of intelligence gathering more seriously, just as it pushed for “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 and the long-term consequences of such actions.”
Disturbed by the frustration insecurity is causing in the area of agriculture, the Senate called on the military and other security agencies to be proactive and innovative in their strategies to secure farmlands, so that farmers could return to their farms to ensure increased food production and food security.
Former Senate leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, narrated how residents were being forced to pay money 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 recommendation being made now that hasn’t been made in the past.
“Mr. Senate President, 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 in this National Assembly, but nothing has been done. We won’t give up on this nation.”
Abdul Ningi (Bauchi) said the president should consider giving a time frame to the appointments of service chiefs.
“The president is the appointing authority. I think he must give a time frame to his service chiefs when appointing them. There must be a timeline to IGP and others when they are being appointed. Ten thousand bandits can’t be holding over 250 million Nigerians to ransom.”
Accusing some senior security chiefs of compromise, Ningi 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 need; there must be a timeline. 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.”
Daura noted that “Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and Kebbi states have been plagued by escalating bandits’ attacks, resulting in loss of lives, kidnapping for ransom, displacement of communities and disruption of socio-economic activities.
He also drew the attention of the Senate to the need for a collaboration and coordination among the state governments, security agencies and relevant stakeholders, to develop holistic and sustainable solutions to the challenges posed by banditry in Northwest Nigeria.
He expressed concerns that incessant bandits’ attacks on communities in the North West region has significantly affected food production and agricultural activities.
