David Mark, Senate President

The Senate on Thursday mandated four of its standing committees to undertake a fact finding tour of the country to probe the killings and violence being perpetrated against the people.

The Senate took decision at the end of its debate on a motion on the recent attacks and killings in Plateau, Benue, Kaduna and other Central Nigerian states.

It also condemned the incessant killings occasioned by the simultaneous and multiple attacks on communities and villages and observed a minute silence in honour of the dead.

The motion was sponsored by Sen. Barnabas Gemade (PDP-Benue) and five other senators from Benue, Plateau and Kaduna.

The committees are Interior, Police Affairs, Security and Intelligence, Defence and Army.

Leading the debate on the motion, Gemade stressed the need for the government to find a new strategy to combating the menace as had been adopted by other federal systems of the world.

“The nation cannot afford to remain scared of trying tested solutions adopted by other federal systems of the world.

“The pattern of federalised policing under a unitary command may have made sense under military regimes in the past but it was hardly the best in the prevailing situation of insecurity.

“These late night guerrilla style attacks and daylight mass killings of people have become the hallmark of organised and specialised terror or killer groups,” he said.

He pointed out that the danger had worsened in the North-Central and North-Eastern parts, saying that the attacks were not only incessant, but the gory details of the daily massacres were becoming more daring and horrific.

“We are worried that in a confusion of daily headlines, the 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.”

Sen. Victor Lar (PDP-Plateau) said the guerrilla nature of the attacks indicated that the perpetrators were out to cause disintegration of the country.

“The guerrilla warfare style that is being adopted by the mercenaries is about becoming the most serious threat to the security of this country.

“If the attack is aimed at the central part of Nigeria, it means that it is aimed at the unity of this country.

“It is therefore a crisis that has the potential of tearing this country apart.” Lar said.

Also, Sen. Solomon Ewuga (APC-Nasarawa), observed that the incessant attacks on the various communities across the country called for collective action by political leaders.

“Let us be more serious than we are to discuss on the way insecurity has pervaded places in the North-East and in some portions of Niger Delta,’’ Ewuga said.

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the proceedings, called for the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force.

Ekweremadu said this would ensure effective security for the people as was obtainable in other federations of the world.

He said that the present system of policing in Nigeria made it difficult for provision of effective security for the lives and property of the people across the country.

He said it was imperative for the Federal Government to consider the need for the creation of a well-coordinated and regulated police at both the states and local government levels.

We run a federal system of government and it is completely unacceptable for us to have a federal system and for us to also have a centralised police.

“We must be able to provide sufficient police personnel that should be at least be one policeman per hundred metres away.

“And this can only be achieved if we decentralise our police, ensuring that we have state police and possibly local police that is well coordinated and regulated.

“The time has come for us to reflect on this and see how we can provide efficient security for our people,’’ he said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)