Following a crucial meeting between the President and the leadership of the National Assembly at the Presidential Villa, the Federal Government said it has resolved to constitute a security committee to periodically review the issue of security across the country. The meeting was attended by the Senate President Ahmad Lawan and House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila.
Speaking to State House Correspondents, Gbajabiamila said during the meeting, Buhari spoke on the challenges associated with insecurity.
“The question of security is uppermost in his mind and he opened up to us and you must understand that some communications are privileged, but suffice to say that the president is concerned and he intends to do something about our challenges.
“Opinions are divided; the generality of the opinion is that the service chiefs should go, that was evident in our debates in the House of Representatives and in the senate, bus sometimes you don’t want a knee-jack reaction.
“Many of us identify that something drastic has to be done, there’s also the school of thought that says since we are talking about banditry, kidnapping and murders, what have the armed forces got to do with that, anywhere in the world?
“So, the question then arises that if he (Buhari) changes the service chiefs, does that address the issues of kidnapping and banditry? The Army, the Navy and the Air Force are outfits set up to tackle external aggression. It is the police that is set up for internal security, such as we are all witnessing.
“That’s talking about service chiefs, has the inspector-general of police met up with his responsibilities? The question is if we now narrow it that to the inspector-general to police, many will argue that he has done a very good job and many will argue with you that he’s straight-jacketed, there’s very little he can do in the face of no equipment, no funding and we explained to Mr. President that we have to increase funding, we’ve to recruit more.”
Also speaking, Lawan said the government needed to come up with strategies and roadmap to secure the lives and property of Nigerians in the intermediate and long-term basis.
Attempt by Vigil360 to find out when the Committee would be inaugurated was futile as the Press Secretary to the Speaker said he was yet to be briefed on the matter. He also said issues surrounding the composition of the Committee were yet to be mentioned to him.
