Increased spate of insecurity nationwide, despite huge investment in security and defence, has made the adoption of strange and special measures mandatory and urgent, senators argued yesterday.
Contractual appointment of service chiefs, Inspector General of Police, and heads of other security agencies is among such special measures suggested by the lawmakers.
These came, as the Senate charged President Bola Tinubu to immediately review security strategies to curtail rising insecurity in the country. Adopting a motion sponsored by Senator Nasiru, Sani Zangon Daura (APC: Katsina North sought increased collaboration between security agencies and state governments on security matters.
Debate on the motion attracted very open and blunt submissions by lawmakers, as most of them expressed the view that that issues of sabotage should be properly addressed to allow for better handling of insecurity.
The hallowed chamber specifically asked Tinubu “to direct a thorough review and evaluation of the strategies employed by security agencies in the region, and consider the deployment of additional security personnel/ special task force to the identified hotspots to ensure the protection of lives and properties.”
It charged security agencies to take matters of intelligence gathering more serious, just as it sought “the establishment of a task force to evaluate the effectiveness and implications of negotiating with bandits, conducting a thorough analysis of the short-term gains versus the long-term consequences of such actions.”
Worried about the frustration insecurity is causing to agriculture, the Senate also called on the military and security agencies to be proactive and innovative in their strategies to secure farmlands for increased food production and security.
Former Senate Majority Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, in his contribution, opened up on how residents were being made to make financial payments to kidnappers.
Also, ex-Senate Deputy Majority Leader, Abdul Ningi, said the President should consider giving time frame to appointments of service chiefs
Accusing some senior security chiefs of compromise, Ningi said: “We need to sit down with Mr President and give him the information that he doesn’t have. We must give them what they needed, there must be timeline. Once they know that they can lose their jobs, they will sit up.”
Defending his motion earlier, Daura noted that “Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and Kebbi states have been plagued by escalating banditry, resulting in loss of lives, kidnapping for ransom, displacement of communities and disruption of socio-economic activities.”
He also canvassed collaboration and coordination among state governments, security agencies and relevant stakeholders to develop holistic and sustainable solutions to the challenges posed by banditry in the Northwest.
