Insecurity: Again, Senate asks Buhari to sack service chiefs for ‘failure’

…as 40,000 murdered, 7m in humanitarian needs

The Senate has once again called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the “over-stayed” service chiefs and replace them with new oneswithnewideasandsolutions.

Theupperchamberalsourged the president to provide enough state-of-the-art weapons and equipment to effectively combat the insurgents.

The senators also urged the president to immediately initiate probe into widespread allegations of corruption and leakages within the security architecture and put in place measures to foster transparency and ensure all resources meant and deployed for security are actually spent on the needs on ground.

The Senate made the resolutions after a debate on a motion titled “Beheading of 67 farmers in Bornobybokoharaminsurgents: Need for urgent decisive action” moved by Kashim Ibrahim Shettima (APC - Borno Central) at the plenary on Tuesday.

The federal lawmakers impressed on the government to seekcollaborationwithneighbouring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon towards reviving and strengthening the Multinational Joint Task Force and finding a lasting solution to the scourge of insurgency in the Lake Chad region.

They urged the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, recruit at least 10,000 civilian JTF conversant with the local terrain in Borno as Agro-rangers under the aegis of the Nigerian Security andcivildefencecorps(nscdc) to complement the efforts of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

It also tasked the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to provide succour and psychological support to the bereaved families.

The Senate also called on the Federal the Government to provide proper welfare for security personnel fighting in the frontlines and give prime attention to the welfareandcompensationoffallen soldiers so as to boost the soldiers’ moraleandaidtheirconcentration.

As a long term solution, the red chamber challenged the federal and state governments to adequately address immediate and remote causes of insecurity in the nation.

These, they said, must include comprehensive packages on education, employment and other social vices.

In the lead debate, Shettima, a formergovernorofborno,lamentedthestatehadbeentheepicentre ofdespicableactivitiesofbokoharamforoveradecadeduringwhich a conservative estimate of 40,000 people mostly unarmed civilians have been brutally murdered.