Boko Haram: Senate moves to halt escalating security threats in North East

 To summon service chiefs over increasing attacks by Boko Haram
Senate on Wednesday reaffirmed commitment to address the security challenge in the North East as it urged its ad-hoc committee investigating the state of security affairs in Zamfara constituted last week to broaden its mandate to include the entire North East.
The Senate took this decision after adopting a motion by Senator Ali Ndume (Borno South) on what it regarded as a worrisome state of security in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States.

Ndume in his motion commended President Muhammadu Buhari on the fight against insurgency in the northeast by the relocation of Armed Forces
Command to Borno on assumption, leading to the degrading of Boko Haram in th north east zone.

He expressed concern that the level of attack by the insurgent have escalated to worrisome level since the beginning of this year.
“In the year 2017, more than 357 civilians were killed during 55 attacks in the North East. The deadliest month was in August when the militant group killed 100 people, followed by November with 76 people killed already. Recently, 3 soldiers and a child were killed in Magumeri in Borno, several civilians were killed in Madagali in Adamawa, and eight soldiers were killed in Sasawa in Yobe State,” he recounted.

Ndume also drew senate’s attention to the fact that up till date, 103 Chibok girls, 10 women from Askira/Uba and lately 3 staff of University of Maiduguri remain in captivity.
According to him, the worrisome cases of suicide bombing in Borno and recently Mubi in Adamawa that killed 50 people and wounded several others has continued to escalate.

Ndume while expressing worries on the trend of Boko Haram attack in Borno said over 4.8 million people are still affected by the crisis, while the estimated cost of destruction, according to a UN agency report on the atrocities of the Insurgents is put at over $9billion.

“In Borno alone about 1.0 million returning IDPs without anything to start are now scared of going back to their various towns and villages and therefore forced to remain in Maiduguri camps that are already crowded and over stretched, ” Ndume observed.
He therefore prayed the senate to among other measures invite the service chiefs to brief it on the worrisome state of security in a closed session.

In his contribution, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, while also expressing concern on the situation in the North East reminded the senate that there is an ad hoc committee on ground to address the seeming security challenges in Zamfara State. Ekweremadu suggested that the senate should accommodate the prayer by directing the committee extend its mandate to include the entire south east.

The Senate President Bukola Saraki in line with the suggestion urged the adhoc committee to report back to senate within five weeks.
 

Olufemi Samuel, Abuja