Insecurity: Sen. OBA, Colleagues Urge FG to adopt measures to secure lives of Nigerians

The Senate today, Wednesday, 10th February 2021 rose from its plenary urging the Federal Government of Nigeria to take drastic and urgent measures to ensure the safety of lives and properties of Nigerians In a motion sponsored by Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice and co-sponsored by Senator Bassey Albert (OBA) and 105 other senators, the Senate noted with sadness several reports of killings, kidnappings, and banditry in several states leading to issuance and counter-issuance of eviction notices by some ethnic entrepreneurs and groups posing as ethnic nationalists and champions. After contributions by several senators on the motion, the Senate urged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the National Security Adviser and the new Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police to device a proposal to rejig the nation’s security architecture and disposition of forces for more effective countermeasures against the current security challenges in the country. It also urged the state governor’s to re-invigorate rural governance and convene statewide inter-communal conclaves and dialogues to promote local conflict resolution and inter-ethnic harmony. The Senate also urged the Federal Government to immediately embark on an operation to checkmate the proliferation of firearms and enforce the laws against illegal possession of firearms by arresting, disarming, and punishing anyone in illegal possession of arms. It also urged state governors to implement the National Livestock Transformation Plan which is a modern scheme designed to eliminate transhumance in order to prevent farmer-herder conflicts and activate the highly productive livestock sector in Nigeria. While urging security agencies to deploy drones and helicopters to monitor forests and ungoverned areas in Nigeria to identify illegal camps of armed bandits, the Senate urged the Federal Government to review the ECOWAS Protocols to checkmate entry of illegal immigrants into Nigeria. Contributing to the motion, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources Upstream, Senator Bassey Albert (OBA) said the security situation in Nigeria at the moment requires collective action by all stakeholders. Referring to a recent study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which show that the country should be able to create 5 million jobs every year to mitigate the effect of unemployment in the country, he asked: ‘How many jobs have we as a country created to tackle poverty and unemployment?’