Senate okays state police agitations, Reps to probe tanker explosions

The Senate yesterday approved suggestions and agitations for the creation of state police as a way of strengthening security across the country.Adopting a motion sponsored by former Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang on Plateau killings, the Senate also directed its Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to come up with a bill for creation of truth, peace and reconciliation commission within the next two weeks.

Also, the Police Reform Bill, which had been pending before the Committee on Police was to be given expedition consideration.These were parts of the resolutions reached at the end of a marathon debate on killings in several parts of the country.The lawmakers condemned in its entirety the wanton killings in the land and helplessness of the security agencies, particularly the centralised police force.

Senate President Bukola Saraki, in his remarks, said: “The killings are totally unacceptable and we must condemn them in totality.“These are acts of criminality and we should not encourage any other colouration to it, be it religious. This is criminality and as such, we have a role to ensure that we must address this criminality.” Also, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu said as long as the country refused to do the needful in terms of state police, the wanton killings in the land would not end.

In another development, in a bid to ensure the well-being of the citizenry, the House of Representatives has resolved to probe into the rising cases of petroleum tanker accidents leading to wanton destruction of lives and property across the country.The decision followed a motion of urgent public importance on by Mr. Johnson Oghuma (Edo-APC) at the plenary presided by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

Oghuma, who sponsored the motion, said the House was alarmed by accidents involving petroleum tankers, “which are now of high frequency in occurrence and of high safety consequences in Nigeria.”He said it was disheartening that the petroleum industry, which was expected to operate under complete safety due to the high level of its product’s inflammability, continued to exhibit complete lack of adherence to the Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) regulations.