Senate President Ahmad Lawan says
investors will avoid Nigeria if insecurity is not tackled decisively.
Speaking on Wednesday, Lawan said
there is a collaboration between the national assembly and security agencies to
seek ways of finding solutions to the issue of kidnapping and insecurity across
the country.
He said funding was a major
setback in the fight against insecurity, but that the legislature, with the
support of the executive arm of government, would explore the possibility of
sourcing funds separately from what is set aside for security agencies in the
2020 budget.
Lawan said the national assembly
requested Babagana Mungono, national security adviser, to come up with a
proposal for the purchase of drones to be deployed across the country to facilitate
the arrest of kidnappers.
He also said Isa Ali Pantami,
minister of communication and digital economy, has been directed to device
means of tracking kidnappers and other criminals through active phone numbers
used during negotiations.
“In the last one month, I’ve been
holding regular meetings with security agencies, including the ministers of
communications and the federal capital territory, ” Lawan said.
“What we are trying to do is to
get a better and result-oriented approach to fighting kidnapping and
insecurity.
“We have insisted that no amount
of resources will be too much because we need to protect our people and secure
the country.
“It will remain a pipe dream if
we continue to ask investors to come to Nigeria; even those in Nigeria will not
invest properly if the security situation remains very dicey.
“This is something that the
national assembly will have to do together with the executive arm of
government. We have to look for something out of the ordinary for funding.
“We have to go out of our way to
look for resources outside the national budget.
” If we can release seven billion
naira to Distribution Companies (Discos) or Generation Companies (Gencos),
nothing stops us from looking for such money to address the security situation
of the country.
“We have already given a request
for the NSA to come up with the different designs and models of drones. We hope
there should be drones properly deployed to ensure kidnappers are arrested.
“We have to find a way to be able
to track kidnappers through phones. We should have launched the national
emergency call centre with a specific number about two weeks ago.
“We have tried to reconcile all
security agencies to have one specific number instead of separate and different
ones. We want the emergency call centres to be established across the country.”
He said the federal government
will launch an emergency call centre for the purpose of contacting various
security agencies in times of distress.
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