Killing Spree: Senators Demand Security Chiefs’ Sack

• Seek fresh hands, ideas to tackle insecurity   

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday united against the nation’s security chiefs, insisting current spate of killings across the country demand that fresh hands and ideas be deployed to manage affairs and address disturbing developments in the sector.

Blaming the federal government for its seeming unresponsiveness towards on-going nationwide killings of innocent Nigerians, the Senate also said current happenings sadly depict leadership letdown in tackling Nigeria’s mounting security challenges.

At their plenary session, the Senators expressed disappointment, disenchantment and rage, charging President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently rejig the nation’s security apparatus with all the security chiefs relieved of their appointments immediately.

The lawmakers asserted that current occupants of these sensitive positions have reached their wit’s end, and therefore rejigging the apparatus and replacing the security heads will inject fresh blood, ideas and vigour in tackling continuing reckless killings across the country.

The Senators, who dwelt on the mass murders perpetrated by killer herdsmen and criminal militia groups, noted that the nation’s democracy is not only becoming endangered, but Nigerians are progressively more disenchanted and upset over government’s failings and inactions on the poor security situation.

They described as ‘painful and agonizing’ the daily routine of a minute silence in honour of those that lost their lives in the senseless killings, with a charge that Mr President must take urgent steps and deploy every constitutionally allowed measure to protect all citizens and restore normalcy across the country.

The Senators, in observing a minute silence in honour of 32 lives lost in Nasarawa state recently, also mandated its Ad-Hoc Committee on the review of the security infrastructure in the country to investigate the matter and report back to the Senate.

Speaking on the point of Order by Senator Suleiman Adokwe, PDP, representing Nasarawa South, on the killings in his senatorial district, the Senators also advised the President to approach the global community for immediate help to rein in country’s security problems.

Senator Adokwe had in his presentation, said:  “Throughout the weekend and up to the moment that I am speaking, herdsmen have unleashed terrorism and mayhem on the people of my senatorial district, leaving many dead bodies, numerous wounded persons and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons. The victims are largely the Tiv-speaking ethnic nationalities with a reported dead toll of 32 persons and we are still counting.”

According to him; “The real tragedy is not in the well-coordinated and simultaneous carnage across Awe, Obi, Keana and Doma Local Government Areas of Southern senatorial district, but the tragedy lies from the fact that for four days running, this mayhem continues unhindered, unchecked, unstopped by any arm of the law and security enforcement agencies.

“Right under the nose of the armed forces and the police, this killing is sustained unabated by sheer negligence or refusal to act by the security agencies. It is very sad that in Nigeria, with all the security forces, a whole senatorial district will go on being punished by militia and no action coming from government. This is a sad commentary.”

Senator Adokwe expressed shock that though an army base is nearby where this carnage took place, no single shot was fired by the army, adding; “It baffles me and beats my imagination that a whole enforcement agency of the Nigerian state will stand by and witness Nigerians being killed endlessly. Nobody can explain this.”

“It is no wonder that eminent Nigerian citizens have urged Nigerians to defend themselves because their lives are in their hands and no longer in the hands of the Nigerian security forces”, he posited

Also speaking on the motion, Senator Solomon Adeola Olamilekan (APC), representing Lagos West, said there was the urgent need to inject fresh ideas towards remedying and addressing the nation’s security challenges, stressing that the country was no longer safe as every Nigerian was current exposed to danger of being killed by armed bandits or marauding herders.

He endorsed the immediate sack of all the service chiefs and heads of security agencies, noting that they have failed to proffer solutions to ceaseless security challenges that have resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives of Nigerians.

“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. What the President needs at this time is fresh ideas on how to tackle numerous security challenges confronting the nation”, he said.

The APC lawmaker further stated that the only way the President can access fresh ideas on managing the mounting security challenges is to drop all serving service chiefs and give room for those with fresh ideas.

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

Similarly, Senator Barnabas Gemade (APC), Benue State, said Nigeria was fast becoming ‘a state without control; a state experiencing anarchy and a state witnessing ethnic cleansing.’

The lawmaker lamented “It is a shame that a sitting government could watch criminality go to the level that we have seen it today and rather than rise and take very decisive steps against it, we embark on deniability and simply shield this evil by just explaining with flimsy excuses that these are communal clashes in those communities.”

In his submission, Senator Jeremiah Useni (PDP), representing Plateau South East, blamed constant clashes among security agencies for some of the existing security challenges, even as he maintained that heads of such agencies should be sent packing to pave way for a more coordinated relationship within the security setting.