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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives has called on President Bola Tinubu to come up with comprehensive and aggressive security strategy to flush out bandits, terrorists and kidnappers from their hideouts in Nigeria.
The call followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by Ibe Osonwa and Sulaiman Gumi, during plenary calling attention to the incessant abduction of school children and reoccurring bandit attacks on North West states.
The motion is titled “A call for immediate Executive action on the surge in banditry, the Daily Abduction of Schoolchildren and the Perilous Security Situation in Nigerian Schools and Places of Worship.”
Nigeria has continued to battle multiple security challenges, including banditry, terrorism, kidnapping for ransom and communal violence, particularly in parts of the North-West, North-Central and North-East zones. In recent years, mass abductions of students from schools in Kaduna, Niger, Zamfara and other states have drawn widespread national and international concerns.
This has prompted repeated calls for stronger security measures to protect educational institutions and vulnerable communities.
The House also summoned the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu and all the service chiefs including the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd) and his counterpart in the Ministry of Finance, Taiwo Oyedele over escalating insecurity and spate of abductions across the country.
While condemning bandit attacks on schools and churches across the country, it charged President Bola Tinubu to take aggressive steps to dislodge banditry as well as rescue Nigerians in captivity nationwide.
Member representing Kebbe/ Tambuwal Federal Constituency,
Abdussamad Dasuki, while contributing to the motion, said there was need for the House to ascertain releases to the Ministry of Defence in the last six months to know where the problem lies. “We cannot be mandating the House Committees all the time and we are not seeing results. Let us summon the NSA, Ministers of Finance and Defence to a closed-door session. Let us know the releases to the Ministry of Defence in the past six months to know why we are not seeing results.
“Let us also urge the President to direct the recruitment of Forest guards nationwide to boost security across the country.” The parliament also resolved to transmit a letter to President Tinubu, reminding him of his sacred oath of office to protect the lives and properties of all Nigerians.
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The House, while demanding a comprehensive strategy to flush out bandits from their strongholds and secure all vulnerable schools and places of worship, said if the government is unable to restore security within a specified time frame, the Service Chief’s should honourably resign from office.
Furthermore, the Green chamber, which urged the Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, to deploy adequate security personnel and equipment to Zamfara and other North West states, implored the government to also explore non-kinetic action to end insecurity in the area.
Earlier, Osonwa, who represents Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency of Abia State, in his lead debate, decried the incessant abduction of school children, stating that the development has compounded the country’s out-of-school children crisis.
“Religious congregants are now regularly attacked, abducted, or killed during worship services, severely infringing upon the citizens’ fundamental right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
“Ordinary Nigerians are crying out every day, feeling entirely abandoned by the state, as businesses collapse, farming communities are deserted due to terror, and families are forced into extreme poverty trying to raise astronomical sums for ransom.
“Despite the trillions of Naira allocated to the defense and security sectors in consecutive national budgets, the current security architecture appears overwhelmed, reactive, and incapable of halting the sophisticated operations of these bandits.
“The apparent lack of a decisive, definitive, and crushing military response from the security agencies a collapse in the enforcement of sovereign security, leaving citizens with the grim impression that the government has lost control of vast territories within the nation.”
Similarly, Gumi, who represents Gummi/Bukkuyum Federal Constituency of Zamfara State, in his motion, expressed concern that uninhibited movement of bandits across communities and states undermines the country’s security.
The lawmaker informed the House that “the insecurity in Zamfara State and the entire North West has escalated into a complex humanitarian crisis, driven by armed banditry, kidnappings, and the infiltration of transnational jihadist groups.”
Gumi, who recounted the various attacks by bandits in different parts of Zamfara State and other parts of North West, noted that “if the recurring trend of insecurity and kidnapping in Zamfara State and the entire North West is not checked, it will destroy lives and ruin the socio/economic fortunes of the entire North West Region.”
