***Asks Security agencies to henceforth be accountable with funds
The Senate has resolved to collate all resolutions made by both Chambers covering the 8th, 9th and currently the 10th national assembly on the incessant killings across Nigeria for formal presentation to President Bola Tinubu for immediate actions.
The red chamber mandated the leadership of the National Assembly to pay a visit to the president on the security situation with a summary of the recommendations of committee reports covering the period under review
This was just as the upper legislative chamber faulted the security architecture of the country stressing that the armed forces have received appropriations enough to deal with insecurity.
This followed a motion of urgent national importance on the killings in Ukum, Vandeikya and Katsina Ala areas of Benue state moved by Senator Emmanuel Mmenga Udende.
In his motion which was roundly supported, the federal lawmaker drew the attention of the Senate to the killings of over 50 persons by armed herdsmen in his senatorial district .
In his lead debate he expressed grieve that no less than 50 persons have been killed in fresh attacks on several communities in Kwande, Ukum, Logo and Katsina Ala Local Government Areas of Benue State by terrorist parading as herdsmen
“Further aware that the affected communities some of which were attacked as recently as yesterday 5th March, 2024 include Tyuluv, Borikyo, Kundav, Ugbaam, Uyam, Udedeku, Yaaiwa, Nyihemba, Tomatar , Menakwagh , Yiase and Agura all in the Benue North East Senatorial district of Benue State;
“Saddened that residents of the villages and communities now find themselves targeted on a daily basis by heavily armed terrorist herdsmen, and the toll continues to be staggering as they bear the brunt, with reports of marauders butchering several villagers, leaving many homes completely burnt down and numerous residents still missing while the perpetrators, however, remain elusive and have not been apprehended;
“Further saddened that this pathetic situation and development has inflicted untold hardship on women, children and the elderly, who are trekking long distances in search of a safe haven and awaiting the intervention of security operatives;
“Concerned that this situation, in addition to the loss of lives and property, has already impacted negatively on the economic lives of the people and the resultant effect of shortage of farm produce is one of the reasons for the astronomical rise in the prices of agricultural produce and inflation in the country;
“Further concerned that despite the public outcry and previous resolutions of the National Assembly as regards the criminal activities of these terrorist parading as herdsmen, there seems to be no visible action on the part of government to curtail, abate or totally stop the criminal activities of these criminal elements;
“Convinced that the utmost concern of and the purpose of government is the security and safety of lives and properties in line with Section 14 (2) b of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and there is need to act urgently”.
Senator Abaribe (Abia South), in his contribution observed that nothing has changed since the Senate had over 10 hours meeting with the Service Chiefs.
Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North), President of the 9th Senate and Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence recalled that one of the resolutions in the series of meetings that they undertook was for the leadership of the Senate to meet the president because they thought that the President, Commander-in Chief needs to know the lawmakers’ perspective, and understanding of the issues on the 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 with 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 engagement at 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 both houses of the National Assembly “on behalf of our colleagues, need to sit down with the President who is the Commander-in-Chief. Our security has the capacity. All they need, as I said, is training, equipment, motivation (TEM).
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 security of lives and properties in Benue state are protected.
“The first line of thought is the government of Benue as Senator Udende brought, we have not heard any comments from the government of Benue. If 50 people and communities are been 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.
Other resolutions of the Senate included condolence to the people of Benue North East Senatorial District and to also lead a delegation to the Governor of Benue State to find out his efforts on the and challenges
It also urged the Chief of Defence staff, Chief of Army staff, Chief of Air staff, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and heads of other security agencies to as a matter of urgency.
Senate also called on the security operatives to deploy personnel to address the continuing and ongoing attacks by armed terrorist parading as herdsmen on communities in Kwande, Ukum, Logo and Katsina Ala Local Government Areas of Benue State with a view to flushing out the herdsmen, stop the killings and restore normalcy to the affected communities,
It was also resolved that there should be more investment in surveillance technology and equipment to detect and prevent future attacks;
Also that there should be a review of the security architecture in the area to forestall the continuous attacks.
It also requested the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to immediately mobilize relief materials to the people displaced by these recent attacks in Kwande, Ukum, Logo and Katsina Ala Local Government Areas of Benue State, . mandate the relevant committees of the Senate to ensure compliance