Insecurity: Senate laments use of telephone by kidnappers to negotiate ransom, summons Pantami

The Senate on Wednesday mandated its Committees on Legislative Compliance and Communications to invite Isa Ali Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, to impress on him the need to implement the resolutions of the Senate regarding security relating to the mandate of his ministry.

The decision was reached in a resolution which followed the consideration of a motion on the spate of growing insecurity in Nigeria.

Rising under Order 42 and 52 of the Senate Rules, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha (PDP – Taraba South), said that, “the rate of insecurity in Nigeria has not only increased astronomically but has reached a melting point.”

According to Bwacha, the challenge has manifested in the armed robbery, kidnapping, assassination, banditry, and other criminal activities in Nigeria.

“The assassination of Nasarawa State APC Chairman and other high profile cases are still fresh in our memories. A Chinese National was recently abducted in my community, his whereabouts are still unknown,” Bwacha lamented.

Bwacha further expressed worry that, “there is a growing suspicion of the complicity of officials of state saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and property of the citizens, but compromised in the process.”

He added, “This is heightened by the arrest of several security operatives involved in armed robbery and kidnapping activities across the country. It’s only in Nigeria that communication facilities can be used without a biometric process, no valid identification of passport details (in the case of foreigners) in place to check abuse.”

He raised the alarm that, “bandits, terrorists negotiate for ransom using telephones and getting away with it.”

“The Senate is concerned that the confidence between the protected and the protector is increasingly eroded, resulting in the breakdown of law and order as demonstrated in the #EndSARS protest which was subsequently hijacked by miscreants,” he said.