Senate, Reps to confer with Tinubu as killings escalate in Benue, Katsina, others

By Haruna Salami, Tom Okpe

The leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives will be meeting with President Bola Tinubu over the rising cases of bloody attacks on communities by armed terrorists and marauders.

The renewed attacks have left over 50 persons dead in communities in Benue, Katsina and other states within the past three days.

The killings have continued despite ongoing military operations in the affected states, a development the lawmakers said was unacceptable.

The Senate, at plenary on Wednesday, wondered why the attacks have continued unchallenged despite adequate funding and equipping of the military and other security agencies.

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The lawmakers said the proposed meeting with President Tinubu became necessary because several meetings with the Service Chiefs and heads of other security agencies failed to achieve results.

According to them, it’s high time Tinubu halted the killings by wielding the big stick and taking decisive actions as Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces.

The decision to engage with the President followed a motion by Senator Emmanuel Udende (Benue North East) on the latest killing of over 50 people by armed terrorists parading themselves as herdsmen in Kwande, Ukum, Logo and Katsina Ala local local governments areas in Benue state.

Udende brought the motion under Matters of Urgent Public Importance pursuant to Orders 41 and 51 of the Senate Standing Orders 2023 (as amended)

He said no fewer than 50 persons were killed in fresh attacks on the communities by terrorist parading themselves as herdsmen.

The body of senators then mandated the leadership of the National Assembly to engage with President Tinubu on the worsening security situation.

During the debate, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South) observed that nothing has changed since the Senate had over 10 hours meeting with the Service Chiefs less than a month ago.

Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North),
recalled that one of the resolutions in the series of meetings with the security chiefs was for the leadership of the Senate to meet the President.

Lawan, who is the chairman of the Senate committee on Army, said the President needed to know the lawmakers’ perspective, and understanding of the issues on insecurity in the country.

He said “Defence related committees will continue to do their oversight. But one thing is very clear, this Senate, indeed, the National Assembly since I know it, has always given our Defence and security outfits a lot of attention and resources because we believe that within the constraints of our resources, we must do something to improve on funding. That is not to say we are solving the problem because of giving more resources.

“We need to insist on value for money. We give more resources, we want to see better security environment, otherwise when we have no KPIs, the resources may simply be filtered away.

“I believe that going forward, we should continue without oversight, but our services in the Armed Forces and other security agencies must always account for the resources we give them.

“The 8th Senate where I was the Senate Leader, the 9th Senate where I was the Senate President, both had national summits on security and we have voluminous, very rich reports, which we forwarded to the presidency at that time and we had series of engagements at the leadership level.

“I believe we should go back, look at those reports. Our leadership should engage Mr. President and come up with resolutions that we passed here in this Senate to say this is the way we feel.

“Of course, some of our citizens will say they want to defend themselves. But what is the purpose of government? It means we shy away from our responsibilities because the most important purpose of any government is security. Even welfare is second.

“So, we need to insist on getting better outcomes from our security agencies. I believe that everyone of us here, whether affected now or not, has experiences of insecurity and should insist on getting improvement.

“The constitutional amendment is coming. I don’t know what we can do better, but the security architecture in Nigeria today has failed woefully. I have said this many times even in the previous assemblies that this thing is not working. We have to find something that works”.

Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume said, “this issue of security, we can’t continue to be coming here every day or at least every week to observe one minute silence. Then next week we have something like that or more than that; then you say you condemn, we observe one minute silence.”

He said the leadership of the two legislative chambers need to sit down with the President. “Our security has the capacity. All they need, as I said, is training, equipment, motivation.”

Speaking on the killings in Benue, Akpabio said the primary responsibility of the state government is to use the security vote to ensure that the lives and properties in Benue state are protected.

“The first line of thought is the government. We have not heard any comments from the government of Benue. If 50 people and communities are being attacked, we will expect that the government will marshal out plans with the immediate security operatives within the affected states and see what they can do before bringing it to the President.

“And I want to assure you that President Bola Tinubu, though he has not stayed long in office, he is supportive of the activities of the Armed Forces and by the time the Senate meets with him in conjunction with the House of Representatives, I believe that the resolutions that we come out will benefit the entire country.

“It is a fact that since his assumption of duties, insecurity has abated, major attacks are no longer taking place, but this one is just an aberration and it will be brought to an end.

“I assure the good people of the areas affected that this matter is now on the floor of Senate and we are taking serious actions with the presidency to ensure that normalcy is restored to the areas and the victims are also taken care of.

The Senate also urged the Service Chiefs, Inspector General of Police, and other security agencies to, as a matter of urgency, deploy security personnel to address the continuing and ongoing attacks, with a view to flushing out the terrorists and restoring normalcy to the affected communities m.

On its part, the House of Representatives asked President Tinubu to direct security agencies to sustain their pressure on criminals perpetrating violence in Katsina State and the country in general.

This was sequel to a motion of urgent national importance moved by Rep Sada Soli, member, representing Jibia/Kaita Federal Constituency in Katsina state.

The lawmaker, during plenary, expressed concerns about devastating impact of banditry on the lives and livelihoods of people of the state. He said the escalating banditry attacks in Katsina State have resulted in loss of lives, destruction of properties and kidnapping of innocent citizens daily.

Soli said security agencies are yet to take immediate and decisive action to address the security challenges in the state and other parts of the country.

He called for increase in deployment of security personnel to the affected communities to combat crime and restore peace and order.

He said, “Some gangs of armed bandits from neighboring Kaduna and Zamfara states are making all efforts to gain control over some communities in Katsina State.

“I am worried that Katsina State is near being overrun by criminal elements if no urgent and decisive action is taken to curb the activities evil men.”

The House observed a minute silence in honour of the deceased victims of the attacks in Katsina and other states. It urged NEMA and the Ministry of Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation to urgently provide humanitarian assistance to the affected communities and support the displaced persons across the state.