Degenerating Security: Will Senate’s Vote of No Confidence on Service Chiefs Hold Water?
Nasir Sambo
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| BY OBUTE JAMESTHE Senate penultimate Tuesday said until President Muhammadu Buhari do the needful by sacking the current Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff and other service chiefs, the lawmakers will have no dealing with them. The lawmakers made their stand known during a debate on a motion moved by Senator Bello Mandiya from Katsina South Senatorial District on the abduction of over 300 students of Government Secondary School, Kankara in Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State.Though hundreds of the abducted students were released penultimate Thursday 17th, December after an alleged huge amount of money was given to the insurgents as ransom, many Nigerians are worried that the security situation is getting out of hand in the country. The students were at the mercy of the insurgents until their reported release. Following the motion of Senator Bello Mandiya the lawmakers said they will never have any dealing with the current service chiefs over the inability of President Muhammadu Buhari to honour their resolution.The lawmakers in the upper chamber maintained that from all indications, it is very obvious that Buhari has no respect for the legislators.They also reminded the President of their powers of impeachment as contained in the nation’s constitution if the insecurity situation persists.The red chamber unanimously resolved not to have anything to do with the nation’s service chiefs any longer; hence they dropped their earlier decision to summon the defence minister, military generals and the heads of the security agencies in the country.The Chairman of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, Mathew Urhoghide, lamented that National Assembly had exhausted all avenues to make Buhari tackle insecurity.Urhoghide said, “We stood up here to say that the service chiefs should be changed. The more you say, the more annoying is the President and he will never change them.“Therefore Mr. President please, the President must be compelled to act on Senate resolutions, I am not saying that the President should be impeached; no, it would be premature, but let us compel him to sit up and obey our resolutions.“The President has no respect for the National Assembly, our resolutions are not being respected.”The Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan, however, said “As a parliament, we should never get tired of talking about issues that affect our people“I believe that we should think outside the box. What are those new things that we need to say to bring everybody to the table for the kind of action we believe in the Senate and, indeed the National Assembly that should be taken.”Hundreds of schoolboys abducted from a school in Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State were released last Thursday, Katsina State Government was the first to confirm the development.The Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari confirmed the release of the students on Thursday, a week after they were kidnapped by gunmen.According to him, the boys were initially kept safe in Tsafe, a local government area in Zamfara State.Despite the release of the abducted schoolboys, several quarters are of the view that the insurgents and bandits have been further empowered following allegation of huge amount of money that was paid by the government for their release.If this allegation is found to be true, then the nation will still face more trouble from the gunmen operating either as Boko Haram insurgents or bandits.  ReplyForward |
