Fireworks as Senators give IGP 2-week ultimatum over Benue massacre

Senators on Tuesday, issued a two-week ultimatum to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to in the next two weeks, arrest and investigate the masterminds of the massacre in Benue State.

It also called on the Attorney-General of Benue State, to immediately prosecute those expected to be arrested by the IGP.

The Senate which took the decisions after a five-hour deliberation on an interim report on activities of Fulani herdsmen in Benue State and other parts of the country, warned the IGP not to flout its decision.

Determined to ensure that its decision is carried out, the Senate mandated its leadership to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari and ensure that the recommendations are fully implemented without any delay.

Lawan’s committee has been further mandated to come up with a new recommendation on the best form of policing to adopt in the country. The new mandate followed suggestions made by lawmakers that state police be created.

Offering his thoughts, President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, said insisted that Buhari must act and ensure that those behind the killings are brought to justice. He said the president must act.

Saraki said: “We took almost six hours to deliberate. It shows it goes beyond religion and ethnicity. It shows that there is a breakdown of law and order. If we fail to act, it will be an indictment. We want immediate action. One of the issues is justice. Without justice, there can not be peace.

“The IGP must act and the Attorney-General of Benue State must prosecute the masterminds. I think we owe it to the President to tell him what we have discussed. This is a wake up call on the President and on us all. We must be seen to be doing something.

“The President must act. Those responsible must be held accountable. Military all the time cannot be the solution. The military is being stretched. That is not good for us. More importantly, action must begin to happen to show to Nigerians that we are not just talking. We need to ensure that this never happens again. We need to restore hope.”

Meanwhile, the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has called on President Buhari to declare a nationwide state of emergency.

Ekweremadu warned of a looming war. He contended that with the declaration of a state of emergency, the Federal Government will have the leeway to deploy troops to every part of the country, close borders and take drastic actions to tackle the menace.

He claimed that the international and security communities have expressed worries that another war may soon breakout in Nigeria. The Enugu-born lawmaker, indicted the government and claimed that it has failed to carryout its constitutional duties by protecting lives and properties of every Nigerian.

Decrying the failure of security architecture in the country, Ekweremadu contended that non-adherence to social contracts by elected public officials, can lead to impeachment, loss of elections, coup d’etat and recall of representatives from the parliament.

He said: “The failure of social contracts lead to impeachment, loss of elections, coups and other things. The government should look at Section 305 of the constitution to invoke a state of emergency. Like I said, war is coming.

“The spate of killings in Nigeria are alarming. What is going on are situations of killings and retaliation. As a Senate, we must get up and do something. The Senate is not the only group that is upset. Nigerians are worried. Our leaders who kept mute are now speaking up.

“The international and the intelligence community are worried. They are worried that war is coming to Nigeria. We must not allow this to happen. The constitution says that the primary responsibility of government is the protection of lives and properties. Everyday, we come here to condemn the killings and observe a minute silence.

“I am tired of all these. We need to have security before we talk of good governance. We have security agencies to deal with insecurity in this country. If these institutions cannot guarantee the safety and protection of lives, we must do something.

“We are not away from war. When I talk about state of emergency, it is not removing governors. It is to protect lives. I am calling that s state of emergency be declared in every part of the country. Egypt has done that. We have come to that.

“There are certain decisions the government cannot take until a state of emergency is declared. It will help government to recover arms. When we take this decision, we can close our borders and secure it.

“It is important for us to have a rethink of creating a state police. Every state should have the kind of police that fits into their system. Nigeria is the only democracy that still has a central police. Those states who can provide for it financially should be allowed to do so.”

Former President of the Senate, David Mark, who spoke on the issue, blamed the problem on failure of intelligence. He said the Federal Government is not proactive in responding to national crises.

Mark warned that if this issue is not tackled, Nigerians may resort to self-help and take up arms against the state. He also called on the Federal Government to arrest the masterminds of the attacks to serve as deterrent.

He said: “I have listened to the discussion here. I am moved and touched by the commitment with which senators have spoken their minds. This is a national issue. There are immediate and long term solutions. Creation of colonies and others are long term solutions.

“One life lost is as bad as fifty lost. Unless we can have every minute intelligence report, we will fail. We should get to the immediate solutions. Presently, there is no intelligence transmission. If there is, government is not proactive.

“Nigeria is not the biggest country in the world. We must address these issues. If indeed foreigners are invading this country, are you saying government cannot contain them? It means we are open to attacks. If there are so many people bringing arms and government is not doing anything, people will resort to self defence.

“I will like to suggest that we look at solutions that can take effect. If the sponsors are known, they can be arrested tomorrow morning. If they know them, it means government is failing. If we take this umbrella defence, people will be killed in many more states.”

Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, in his contribution, wondered why security agencies give preferences to some parts of the country more than others.

He said as long as governors do not control security apparatuses in their various states, insecurity will persist in the country.

He said: “Maybe the security agencies are overstretched or they think that some areas are more important than the others. How can we best provide security? As long as a governor is helpless, we will continue to have this loss of lives and properties. I urge that we revisit constitution amendment so that we can find a way to bring in community or state police.

“As long as we have a centralised police, we will continue to have these issues. We maybe having mercenaries from other countries. But I believe that a majority of them are from Nigeria. We are getting to that level of national emergency when we have to take a national decision.”

Dino Melaye, while adding his voice, decried what decried the level of injustice in the country. He said if what happened in Benue State had occurred in the United States of America, President Donald Trump would have visited the affected area.

He called on Buhari to be bold and take a decisive action to deal with the menace of herdsmen. He argued that cattle rearing is a private business and should be handled as such.

Melaye said: “What happened in Benue State has shown that we live in perilous times. We live in a time when justice is the most scarce commodity. I call on Buhari to ring the bell of justice. I call on Osinbajo, the Senate and others to ring the bell of justice. We have had commissions upon commissions of enquiries.

“We have volumes of reports. None of these reports have been implemented. There are killings, yet there is no justice. All those paraded find their way back to the society. Where then is the justice? If this had happened in America, will President Donald Trump be in the White House and be comfortable without paying any visit to the affected places?

“There must be justice. If we do not give justice, we will be inviting a political tsunami. The President must be bold enough to take a decision. Cattle rearing is a personal business. It should be taken as such.”

Senate committee chairman on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Samuel Anyanwu, called on the Federal Government to proscribe herdsmen and tag them as terrorists.

Read also: MAINA: What are you afraid of? Senate asks AGF

He warned that the government must not play politics with the issue. He said if the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) can be proscribed as a terrorist organisation, despite the fact that they did not carry arms, herdsmen must also be given the same treatment.

“These Fulani herdsmen must be proscribed as terrorists. Let us not play politics with this. What we are doing is just talk show. If we cannot solve this problem, this blame game will continue. You must say the truth. People play politics with restructuring and this is the problem of this country.

“If IPOB was tagged a terrorist group, why have they not tagged herdsmen as terrorists? I heard the government talking of cattle colonies. If I want to run a business in Kano, I will meet the people and get the land. Cattle rearing is a business and you cannot take my land by force. Why must you forcefully take somebody’s land? This is economic sabotage. The issue of cattle rearing should not be considered,” he said

Senator Shehu Sani from Kaduna State, descended on his colleagues, specifically members of the adhoc committee. He accused them of playing to the gallery by referring to the Federal Government, instead of calling out President Buhari.

He said this is not the time to be diplomatic or politically correct. He said there is nothing like the presidency when it comes to the issue of insecurity.

In his long remarks, he said: “This is not the time for diplomacy and courtesy. This is the time to provide leadership for a nation that is in a national emergency and national distrust.

“There is something that I like with the presidency. When it comes to the issue of directing attacks to the National Assembly, they do not in anyway curtail, reduce or suppress any of the missiles. But when it comes to our turn to point the finger where the problem is, you will see some form of crowdies, escapism and people who try to water-down issues.

“In the report that was presented to us, “Federal Government” was mentioned about seven times. The security of this country is under the direct control of the President. Why are you shying away from calling on the President to wake up and stand up to the challenge of protecting this country?

“Few days ago, I saw leaders and elders from Benue state in the villa. What were you doing in the Villa? You are bereaved. Your people were killed. The villa should go to Benue and not Benue coming to Villa, for goodness sake.

“We are in a country where there is no complicit reward for violence. The villages and victims are blamed. We must tell ourselves the truth.

“Governors that are supposed to be chief executives of their states are leave their duty posts on daily and weekly basis to the villa to endorse and re-endorse the President. Too much and over endorsement. We should tell ourselves the truth.

“Things are not going right in this country and we are failing. People are dying in their thousands, kidnappings, bloodshed in their thousands from Zamfara to Kaduna to Taraba to Benue to Plateau to Nasarawa state.

“We are all here shifting blames and trying to evade the truth. We can’t solve this problem. Nigerian political class and politicians are more interested in the 2019 general election than the lives of our people.

“From the executive, legislature and state governors, people are more interested about the INEC timetable. We can’t solve this problem if we see everything through ethno-religious lens.

There must be a clear distinction between armed herdsmen who must be confronted frontally and Fulani cattle rearers, but we are not doing that.

“We have reached a point that people have lost hope in the government. We are here trying to massage egos; we do not want to confront the president because people want to come back to the 9th Senate. They do not want to lose their tickets while people are being killed in this country. I’m very sorry. Thank you very much.”

Former governor of Kebbi State Adamu Aliero, however disagreed with earlier speakers. He called on his colleagues to consider a suggestion by the Federal Government that cattle colonies be created.

Aliero came in strong defence of herdsmen. According to him, they are Nigerians and must be accorded their rights. He said they have the right to move their cows around and ply their trade without any hindrance.

The lawmaker equally called on the Senate to reconsider a bill sponsored by Senator Rabiu Kwankawso on grazing. He said the passage of the bill will solve the frequent clashes.

Aliero said: “We all know that the fall of Libya made it possible for arms to come here freely. We must control the proliferation of arms. Is one way the issue can be minimised. Cattle routes must be looked into. Fulani herdsmen have been living in peace. Cattle colonies suggested by the Federal Government must be looked into.

“Fulani herdsmen are Nigerians and they have the right to live and move from one place to another. We must look into this. Kwankwaso brought a grazing bill here. I think this is the time to bring the issue up. We have to be nationalistic and we have to be patriotic.

“Cattle colonies is the same with grazing reserves. It is unfortunate that governors are saying that they have no lands for cattle colonies. We have to find a solution. This is very important. Community policing can solve this problem we are having now.”

Other recommendations which were adopted, prescribed that security agencies must not leave any stone unturned in apprehending the perpetrators and sponsors of the heinous crimes.

The committee also recommended that the Federal Government convenes a national security summit to examine the recurring violence and mayhem visited on communities in the country.

It said security forces should be deployed to rural communities to tame any breakdown of laws and order.

Before the business of the day, the Senate had a closed door session, where lawmakers resolved to observe decorum during the debate. It was learnt that lawmakers, during the session, exchanged hot banters.

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