The House of Representatives has summoned the National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd.); Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin, and other service chiefs; Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu; and Director-General, Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi, over the rising spate of insecurity in Nigeria.
They are to appear before the lawmakers in plenary on Tuesday.
The summons was issued based on a motion moved by a member, Mr Sada Soli, over the increasing attacks by bandits in some states in the North-Central and North-East geopolitical zones.
Adopting the motion, the House resolved to “summon the National Security Adviser; the Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs; Director, Department of State Security; and Inspector General of Police to brief the House on the effort being made and the way forward to bring an end to these killings, kidnappings and banditry at the next sitting.”
The next sitting is on Tuesday.
Also, the lawmakers mandated the leadership of the House to continue the engagement with all the security agencies “on a monthly basis on the progress being made until normalcy is restored.”
Moving the motion, Soli said, “The House is worried that the magnitude of the attacks on various communities have reached an alarming rate, as these criminals have continued to perpetrate their criminal acts unabated. If this criminality is not urgently addressed, there will be an imminent danger to our food security in the country.
“The House is concerned that any deferment by the security agencies to abridge the continuous horror and inhumanity will result into an enormous loss of lives, destruction of properties and immobilise the socio-economic and educational activities of various communities.”
Contributing to the debate, Victor Mela stated that removal of the service chiefs was overdue, as the issue of security should not be trifled with.
He expressed his desire to resign his membership of the House in two months if nothing serious was done on insecurity.
Shocked, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, said, “Honourable colleagues, that is a very serious statement and we commend the contributions of Hon Victor Mela on this floor and his passion; he has thrown a challenge. So that he does not resign, something needs to be done.”
Gbajabiamila called on chairmen of the relevant House committees on security matters to code the take-aways from the debate into legislative forms, asking them to ensure that all the contributions showcasing lapses in the relevant sections of the Acts regulating the security agencies were effectively amended for proactive implementation.