Nigeria: Senate Makes Fresh Move to End Killings, Kidnappings

The Senate rose from a closed-door meeting with the nation’s security chiefs and heads of paramilitary agencies, yesterday, directing them to submit special funding requests within two weeks. Senate President Bukola Saraki, who made the disclosure, said the meeting also discussed the lack of coordination among the security agencies, blaming the situation for the failure to quell killings and kidnappings across the country. Saraki said the Senate also resolved to accord priority to bills that would strengthen the nation’s security architecture.The requests would be in the form of a supplementary budget. It would, however, be different from the $1 billion recently released by President Muhammadu Buhari to the military to combat insecurity.
“The Senate in a closed session received brief from the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin, the Director General of the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura, representatives of the Comptroller General of Immigration, Inspector General of Police, and Comptroller General of Customs, on the proliferation of dangerous arms, spate of killings by terrorists, and kidnappings by hoodlums across the country. They afterwards answered questions from distinguished senators bordering on insecurity, insurgence, terrorism, kidnapping and other crimes, and national security matters,” Saraki said. “We all observed the funding issue and we also agreed that there must be a special funding. As such, we gave them two weeks to present their own budget on this area of special funding that we think will go a long way to improve the security situation in the country,” he said.He described the issue of coordination among the security agencies as being of great concern to the legislators, saying: “We will be looking at how we can effect some amendments in the constitution and the law, to see what we can do to strengthen that aspect of security.”