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INSECURITY: Senate floors Buhari, begs foreign govts to intervene

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The Senate, on Tuesday, supported the position of Enyinnaya Abaribe, who last week, decried the spate of killings in different parts of the country and condemned the poor handling by President Muhammadu Buhari.

At its plenary, the Red Chamber called for the intervention of foreign countries in helping Nigeria to solve its security challenges. They said rather than calling on foreign countries to invest in Nigeria, the Federal Government, should, instead, ask for support in confronting armed bandits in the country.

The position of senators, followed the adoption of a motion which came as a point of order by Suleiman Adokwe. Adokwe represents Nasarawa North Senatorial District in the chamber.

Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided, said the Senate will not stop talking about the killings until the government wakes up to its responsibilities. He insisted that the primary responsibility of government is the protection of lives and properties.

“As we have pointed out, the primary purpose of government anywhere in the world is the preservation of the lives of citizens. If citizens are being killed, we owe the responsibility as a parliament to give it the desired attention. And we will never stop talking about these killings. Unless it stops, we will never be tired of speaking about it.

“Assuming this is happening in America, in the United Kingdom or France, will it take all this time to be resolved? As we know not even in South Africa. But it appears that we are taking too many things for granted. The time has come for us to seek help from other countries as some of us have suggested here. We should not be ashamed to ask for help.

“The President met with the UK Prime Minister and she was of the opinion that Britain would help us security wise. America is also offering to help. We should not be reluctant to come out openly and say we need help, because what we have now is a global village. We cannot be asking people to come to Nigeria and invest their monies here.

“They will not! Rather, let us ask them to come and help us to solve our security problem. If we solve our security problem, they will come here, with nobody asking them to come. I think the first thing to do is to resolve the issue, and it is something we all need to do, and do it fast.

Read also: When Buhari’s tenure ends in 2023, I’ll be next president- Okorocha

Adokwe, in his earlier remarks, said prominent Nigerians are calling on citizens to defend themselves because of the failure of security agencies to provide cover for people.

Adokwe said: “It is no wonder that very eminent Nigerian citizens have urged Nigerians to defend themselves because their life is in their own hands and no longer in the hands of the Nigerian security forces. I am very emotional on this matter and I am not one given to emotion very easily.

“But what I have gone through this weekend is very horrifying; it is very distressing and sad. It is as if we are in a lawless society where life is brutish, where there is absence of state powers. We call on the federal government to stop this carnage.”

Barnabas Gemade, while contributing to the debate, said Nigeria is becoming a country without control. He condemned the handling of security challenges by the various security forces.

Jeremiah Useni from Plateau State and Solomon Adeola from Lagos State, called for the sack of heads of security agencies. The duo said their failure to stop the killings shows that they are out of ideas on how to tackle the issues.

Adeola 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 need at this time is fresh ideas on how to tackle numerous security challenges confronting the nation.

“We know the way the military organisations operates. Those with fresh ideas dare not come out against their superiors or else their risk premature retirement from service. So the current service chiefs should go to allow officers with fresh ideas address our alarming security issues.”

Senators Victor Umeh, Dino Melaye, Oluremi Tinubu, Barau Jibrin and Samuel Anyanwu, who contributed, made the same submissions.

By Ehisuan Odia…

 

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