Insecurity: Release fighter jets to flush out terrorists from hideouts, Senate tells Buhari

From Fred Itua, Abuja 

 

The Senate, yesterday, queried security agencies over their inability to flush out terrorists and other criminals, despite huge budgetary allocations approved by the National Assembly.

It also challenged the Federal Government to immediately deploy fighter jets to flush out terrorists behind the kidnappings and killings across the country from their hideouts.

The call was made during plenary in resolutions reached following a point of order raised on the “Urgent need for the Federal Government to take drastic actions to bring to an end the act of banditry and kidnapping in Faskari Local Government Area.”

Relying on Order 41 and 51 of the Senate Rules, Bello Mandiya noted that banditry and kidnapping had become a daily incidence in Katsina State with attendant loss of lives, displacements of communities and threats to means of livelihood of citizens.

The lawmaker recalled that on Sunday, 31st January, 2022, gunmen struck at Ruwan Godiya, a community in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State, where 38 persons were kidnapped.

“Worried that the continuous security challenges and related attacks by bandits on towns, villages and communities in Faskari Local Government Area have meted untold hardship on the people and have subjected the affected areas under serious survival threat, further worried that if this menace is not drastically and promptly addressed, the consequence is going to be huge on food sufficiency since the affected communities are mostly farmers,” he said.

Kabir Barkiya faulted the inability of the military to contain the spate of attacks.

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks, said the repeated cases of kidnappings and killings made it imperative for the military to “wake up” to protect Nigerians.

“The expectation of the Senate is that there is supposed to be a remarkable difference in success in terms of the fight against insurgence, banditry and militancy in Nigeria. The military is getting better funding from the government and what we expect is to see an improvement in output. I know the resources are not enough, but recently, for one and a half years, government has upscaled the level of funding for our military. Secondly, when we declared the bandits as terrorists, my understanding was they are going to be dealt with ruthlessly. I wonder whether that is the case. The military, like some of our colleagues have said, needs to wake up. We want to see a difference because we have made a difference in terms of funding. I know funding alone will not be enough but funding can make a difference and we expect a difference in outcome.”

Accordingly, the Senate urged the security agencies to comb all known hideouts of the kidnappers in a bid to rescue the 38 persons abducted in Ruwan Godiya. It also called on the Federal Government to send enough military personnel and fighter jets to apprehend the bandits and restore normalcy in the affected areas.