Why Reps demanded immediate sacking of service chiefs, by Gbajabiamila

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday offered an insight as to why his colleagues in the lower legislative chamber demanded the immediate sack of heads of security agencies in the country.

Gbajabiamila, who stated this at the start of the interactive session between the joint committees of the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Intelligence, Defence and the Service Chiefs, he said that the call was a reflection of the mindset of Nigerians.

The Speaker charged the service chiefs to work in concert with the aforementioned committees to think outside the box to address the security challenges in the country

He said: “It was a natural reaction that we reacted the way we did because back home, our constituents are on our necks because they are dying every day, they are dying callously in ways that you can just imagine if there’s no security.

“In my opening speech when I resumed on Wednesday, I commended our men and women in uniform who are dying every day in trying to protect our people.

“This is one of those meetings or engagements which, as I said, is going to be continuous and to find out exactly what is going on, what the issues are and what the problems are. I hope to get some commitments from you.

“I am sure moving forward, things are going to get better. We know what the basic problems are, there’s the issue of equipment, personnel and other things that would be said off-camera.

“We know our committees are capable to handle these issues. It is the government’s priority and I think it should also be our priority in the House as security is one of those major items on our legislative agenda, and we must address it squarely, totally.

“However, whatever needs to be done, we must think outside the box by taking the fight to these criminals. Nigerians are anxious and the stakes are high, but I do understand the limitations of the outburst.

“Like I said, the Navy or either the Air Force is not created for an internal strike rather it is the police that is trained for this but I always say it is because of the circumstances. You have done a good thing by joining to fight for this struggle. But this is squarely the jurisdiction of the police. I want to encourage you to do more.”