Abuja – In a unanimous show of cooperation, senators across the political divide yesterday called on the Federal Government to allow the establishment of state police just as the Senate directed four standing committees to probe killings in seven states. Senate mandated its Committees on Security and Intelligence, Defence and Army, Interior and Police Affairs to undertake a fact-finding mission and report back to the Senate. The investigation will cover Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, Katsina and other parts of Central Nigeria.

Abuja – In a unanimous show of cooperation, senators across the political divide yesterday called on the Federal Government to allow the establishment of state police just as the Senate directed four standing committees to probe killings in seven states. Senate mandated its Committees on Security and Intelligence, Defence and Army, Interior and Police Affairs to undertake a fact-finding mission and report back to the Senate. The investigation will cover Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, Katsina and other parts of Central Nigeria.

The upper chamber, which devoted its entire plenary to debate a motion on “Recent attacks and killings in Pateau, Benue, Kaduna and other parts country” resolved that urgent steps must be taken to address the activities of insurgents. The motion was sponsored by senators Barnabas Gemade, George Akume, Gyang Pwajok, Joshua Dariye, Victor Lar and Nenadi Usman. A bleak future, they contended, await the country if nothing was done and urgently too to address the spreading virus of insurgency. 

The prayer for the Senate to look into the allegations of complicity by the security agents as expressed by victims and survivors of these attacks and to “call on the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed forces to set up a Presidential Committee to look into the root cause of the sudden widespread attack of the peace loving citizens of this country in the states of the Middle Belt Area as it was done in the case of the Niger Delta and the North East Zone” were rejected.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who presided over the session said that the primary purpose of government is the protection of lives and property. Ekweremadu noted that “emerging insecurity in parts of the country requires effective measures to tackle the situation,” adding, “if we decentralize the police, we may be able to deal with problems of insecurity. Gemade, who led the debate, noted with dismay ‘how human life has become increasingly very cheap and impunity has become the norm in Nigeria, particularly in the case of the North Central and North Eastern geo-political zones.

He said that the danger of the grim situation has become very real as attacks by insurgents have become not only incessant but the gory details of the daily massacres are becoming more daring and horrific, “reflecting casualty of mostly innocent and unsuspecting children, women and the elderly. Gemade said sponsors of the motion are worried that the unhealthy situation is further degenerating to a point in which “we can clearly say that we are in the middle of a civil war with multiple ill defined fronts and worse still the perpetrators are often presented as faceless “unknown gunmen” “Boko Haram” or in some instances, “Fulani herdsmen” in ‘conflict’ with “farmers” and victims on the Plateau, in Benue, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Borno, Adamawa, Yobe States and other parts of Nigeria;”

Gemade told the Senate that, survivors and eye witnesses’ testimonies repeatedly raise allegations of duplicity or dereliction of duty by bad eggs within the security circles and doubts as to the capacity of the agencies to provide the much needed security by guaranteeing the right to protection and defending the defenseless regardless of religion or ethnicity, resulting into the gradual return of mutual suspicion amongst peace loving communities across ethnic and religious divides;

He informed the Senate that in Benue State incessant attacks were carried out on communities in Guma, Gwer West, Makurdi, Agatu, Kwande, Logo and Katsina Ala Local Government Areas.

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Dariye, GNS Pwajok, Victor Lar, Barnabas Gemade, Nenadi Usman call for establishment of state police