The Senate at its plenary on Wednesday postponed its meeting with security chiefs over rising insecurity in the country to Tuesday February 13.
It will be recalled that the Senate resolved to invite the Service Chiefs for an interactive session on Wednesday with a view to resolving the insecurity situation plaguing the country.
But the Senate President Godswill Akpabio postponed the meeting citing the absence of the National Security Adviser, Chief of Defence Staff, Minister of Defence, Minister, Minister of State (Defence), Minister of Police Affairs, Director General NIA, Minister of Finance and coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Interior.
Therefore, the Senate suspended its Order 17 to allow the upper chamber to admit the security chiefs into the chamber.
That done, the Chief of Army Staff, Taoreed Abiodun Lagbaja, the Chief of Naval Staff, Emmanuel Ogalla and Chief of Air Staff, Hassan Bala Abubakar, DG Department of State Service (DSS) and the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun were ushered in.
Senator Akpabio said the reason for the meeting was obvious to all, which is “the recent upsurge of insecurity in parts of the country – banditry , kidnappings, and in some places killings, and even after kidnappers have received ransom, they will still go ahead and kill the victims.
“We also received reports that even security personnel have lost their lives in the course of struggling to bring the situation under control”.
We have motions from our colleagues on what was going on in some areas in Agatu in Benue state, what was going on in Taraba state, Bodija in Oyo state, disturbing motions on what was going on in Plateau state like Mangu, Bokkos, Barkin Ladi and other places.
“Very close to us, we also heard of the infiltration of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT by some of the kidnappers and bandits, particularly in places like Kubwa, Bwari and others. We have unconfirmed reports that they have cells and they are congregating, some of the informants met our people and even mentioned some of the areas where they are congregating.
“We have heard of the efforts of the security chiefs and security agencies to rout them out, but the reports kept coming in torrents and became very worrisome to this distinguished senate. Therefore, various resolutions were arrived at, one of which was to invite security chiefs to brief us on the efforts being made to curb this resurgence and at the same give us the opportunity to also make our suggestions for the good of the country.
“Please, while we welcome you, we want you to know that we are not passing the buck, we are not blaming any of you for anything. We believe you are doing your best. We want to hear from you and also make contributions and how we can improve the situation”.
He then noted that those invited were not complete, but said he received apology from the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu the he was in a bilateral meeting with security chiefs from the UK.
Therefore, Akpabio said he would like the attendance of the Chief of Defence Staff, Minister of Defence, Minister, Minister of State (Defence), Minister of Police Affairs, Director General NIA, Minister of Finance and coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Interior.
He then thanked the Service Chiefs in attendance and directed the Clerk of the Senate to invite all the ministers mentioned above and the security chiefs for a rescheduled meeting on Tuesday February 13, 2024 at 9 am.
