Former President of the Senate
and the Senator representing Benue South, Senator David Mark, has commended his
successor, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on his timely directive to the Senate Ad
hoc Committee on Security Infrastructure to cut short its recess and
investigate the New Year killings in Benue state.
Mark who gave the commendation while
contributing to the debate on the interim report of the committee submitted to
the Senate, also lauded the Senator Ahmad Lawan-led committee for its prompt
response to the directive of the Senate President.
The retired General urged
security agencies to fish out the perpetrators of the heinous crimes and their
sponsors as an immediate step towards addressing the clashes between the
herdsmen and farmers in the state.
He said, “Mr. President, there
are several recommendations towards addressing these clashes. In the interim,
the best way is to arrest the sponsors since the Governor of Benue State said
the government has identified the sponsors.
“The long term recommendations of
the committee on cattle colony, ranching and others are still good but they can
not be implemented now. The best way to save life in the interim is to arrest
the sponsors since they have been identified. Saving a life now is as good as
saving the situation and preventing it from degenerating further.”
Deputy Senate President, Ike
Ekweremadu, stated that all Nigerians were worried about the killings across
the nation.
“The Senate is not the only group
or body concerned, Nigerians are also worried,” the Deputy Senate President
said, “We are tired of always observing a minute silence, we must have peace
and security before even thinking of infrastructure and development in the
country.”
“We should revisit the
constitution review where we can start State policing and community policing so
as to curb these kind of internal mayhem,” said the Minority Leader, Godswill
Akpabio.
The Chief Whip, Senator Sola
Adeyeye, stated that all Nigerians needed to rise above religion in putting an
end to the killings. While Senator Shehu Sani, urged the President to suppress
the killings across the country on a long term scale — not just for the
particular incident.
“There is no reason why these
things are happening, and we have an Attorney General of the Federation, yet no
single prosecution,” said Senator Ibn Na’Allah, the Deputy Senate Leader. Na’Allah
also commended the Senate President, for setting up the committee to review
Nigeria’s security infrastructure for better performance.
Senator Andy Uba, representing
Anambra South, called for community police to curb future killings.
“The issue was on CNN which means
it is becoming a national embarrassment,” Senator Uba said, adding, “If setting
up state police is difficult — we should look into setting up community
policing system instead.”
In his own contribution, Saraki
noted that the Senate’s debate on the clashes between herdsmen and farmers in
Benue and other states has shown that it is not religious-based, but a
breakdown of law and order in that part of the country.
“I commend my Distinguished
Colleagues for their sincerity and patriotism during this debate. This killing
is also a wake up call for all of us to put all hands on deck to address this
crisis,” he said.
“We want to see immediate action.
One point raised here today is the issue of justice. Without justice we cannot
see unity and that justice stands as one of our recommendations. In the next 14
days, the Inspector General of Police must find the perpetrators, arrest them,
and the Attorney General of Benue State must prosecute them. That is minimum
requirement and it must happen”, he said.
Saraki continued that : “Our
resolution is that some of our discussions here need to be conveyed to Mr.
President. We appreciate his actions for calling us and giving us a brief on
what has happened. Hence, we owe it to him to tell him what we have discussed
and the seriousness with which we have taken the issue.
“It is a wake-up call for him and
it is a wake-up call for us. It is a wake up call for this government. We must
address the issue of security. We cannot continue to allow this violence to
keep going on from one state to another. Therefore, something needs to be
done”, the Senate President.
“The President must act, and
those responsible for this must be held accountable. There must also be long
term solutions. Part of this long term solution should be left for members of
the committee on security to make objective suggestions.
“The military cannot be the
solution all the time. This is because sometimes they are overstretched and that
has its own impact and problem. In this regard, we are hoping that the
committee urgently comes up with the recommendation to us on what we need to do
to strengthen the police, apart from more man-power. Is it community policing?
Is it state policing? We need to know.
“Something must be done in this
area, but more importantly we have condemned this killings but we must begin to
take concrete steps to re-assure Nigerians we are not here to just talk. All
those who are responsible must know that this kind of incident should never
happen again, going forward”, he said.
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