The military and other security agencies have been summoned by the Senate due to the nation’s growing insecurity issues.
The Red Chamber also decided to ask the Service Chiefs to brief it in private on the measures being taken to reduce the nation’s growing level of insecurity.
The Senate considered and approved a motion made by Senator Abdulaziz Yar’Adua during Thursday’s plenary session, which led to the passage of resolutions.
The Nigerian security agencies and forces were also praised by the Senate for their continued efforts to combat all types of insecurity in the nation.
Additionally, the Red Chamber called on the security services to strengthen and expand their inter-operational coordination and synergy in order to address the many forms of insecurity that the country is now facing in an efficient and comprehensive manner.
Additionally, it requested that the security agencies create a National Security Policy document that would serve as a framework for more efficient and effective coordination and synergy amongst them. Additionally, it requested that they begin joint training to strengthen their capacities and efficacy in addressing the full range of security issues facing our beloved country.
Yar’Adua claims that the current security environment in Nigeria presents hitherto unseen difficulties that are beyond the capacity of any one security agency to provide protection.
As such, cooperation between all pertinent security agencies and MDAs is necessary in the fight against insurgencies and other emerging security threats.
“Nigeria has various security agencies aside from the Armed Forces of Nigeria and the Nigeria Police Force,” the senator declared. These consist of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Nigeria Correctional Service, the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and other duly authorized civil task forces. The Department of State Service, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Intelligence Agency are three more crucial security agencies in Nigeria that keep an eye on both internal and external threats.
Senator Yar’Adua emphasized once more that Nigeria was dealing with many security challenges at the same time. These include the actions of shooters in the south-east and south-southeast, bandits and kidnappers in the north-west, Boko Haram in the north-east, and other criminal activities such as armed robbery, conflicts between herders and farmers, and cross-border crimes.
The kidnapping of Major General RC Duru in Owerri, Imo State, on September 27, 2023, by members of IPOB, as well as the general evil deeds of the banned groups and the much-discussed ‘unknown gunmen’ in the country’s east, were all mentioned by Yar’Adua.
“On October 3, 2023, bandits assaulted the Anguwar Dankali community in the Zaria Local Government Area of Kaduna State, resulting in at least five fatalities and several injuries;
Between October 9 and October 16, 2023, troops from Operation Safe Haven and Operation Hakorin DAMISA IV neutralized bandits and armed robbers and detained 59 suspects in relation to kidnapping, armed robbery, cattle rustling, railway vandalism, gunrunning, and illegal mining, as well as recovered weapons, ammunition, and illegal drugs.
The legislator cited reports obtained from the Punch Newspaper on October 18, 2023, stating that “no fewer than 50 people, including a district head, women, and children, have been abducted while three others were reportedly killed in an attack by bandits in Bagga, a mining village in Zamfara State.” He further declared that “on October 20, 2023, bandits in their numbers raided Danmusa town, the headquarters of Danmusa Local Government Area of Katsina State, killing 7 people, injuring 10 people, and kidnapping an undetermined number of people. Additionally, the bandits attacked the residents of Wurma, Tamawa, and Dadawa villages in Kurfi LG, killing people and rustling cattle.”
“Making Nigeria safe should be the main goal of security agencies. In order to combat insecurity, all security agencies and parastatals that are important to national security must collaborate under a single command structure to guarantee that the nation is extremely secure. The interconnectedness and interrelatedness of Nigerian security services is strengthened by this cooperative effort.