The minority leader of the Senate, Eyinnaya Abaribe and other Senators have called for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari, the service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police, Adamu Mohammed over the rise of insecurity in the country.
Aside from the renewed onslaughts by Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East, cases banditry and kidnapping have also been on the rise. About 29 people were recently killed in a village in Zamfara State despite the amnesty and ceased fire agreements reached with the bandits by Governors of Zamfara and Kebbi States.
Senate Talks Tough on Insecurity
At Wednesday’s plenary, the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe in his contribution to the motion on national security challenges said Buhari’s led government is not doing enough to tame the insecurity in the land but rather engaging in propaganda to deceiving Nigerians.
“Because we have to get to the root of this matter I can only say one thing; those who live by propaganda will die by propaganda,” Abaribe said on Wednesday, January 29, 2020.
“Boko Haram has been defeated; Nigeria is now safer; everything that was being done to make sure that the hard work that was supposed to be done in securing Nigeria was not done because certain people did not do their work but preferred to cover the eyes of Nigerians with propaganda and trying to find all these excuses for non-performance have now come to stare us in the face.
“Nigeria did not elect the IGP; we did not elect the chief of staff, we did not elect the joint-chiefs or national security adviser, we elected the government of APC in 2015 and re-elected them in 2019. The reason we re-elected them is that they continued to tell us that they had the key to security.
“When you want to deal with a matter, you go to the head. So, we will go to the government and ask this government to resign because they can no longer do anything,” Abaribe said.
Other Senators who spoke on the matter also called for the resignation of the Inspector-general of Police, Mohammed Adamu as well as the service chiefs.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on Tuesday read a riot act to activities of bandits in the country just as he also gave a marching order to the Nigerian Air force to shell them from their hideouts.
“I was taken aback by what is happening in the North West and other parts of the country. During our campaigns, we knew about the Boko Haram. What is coming now is surprising. It is not ethnicity or religion, rather it is one evil plan against the country.
“We have to be harder on them. One of the responsibilities of government is to provide security. If we don’t secure the country, we will not be able to manage the economy properly,’’ he said.
Not the First Time
This is not the first time President Muhammadu Buhari will be reading a riot act against the activities of the bandits in the country. The President had in August 2019, ordered the military to identify and kill bandits carrying out attacks across the country. The President said he was disturbed that bandits not only kill but also maim and extort their victims.
Buhari gave the orders in Katsina State while addressing 15 officers and 160 soldiers of the 17th Army Brigade and Nigerian Air Force 213 Operational Base working under the code name “Operation Hadarin Dais”
“This group was formed by the military to secure this geopolitical zone (North-West) from the activities of bandits. Fundamentally, it is your responsibility to secure the country.
“As the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, I believe you are capable of doing it. I don’t think you should spare any bandit. Identify and eliminate them. Pursue them anywhere you can find them and eliminate them.
“Nigeria deserves peace. The rainy season is good and we are already achieving food security, but we need peace. The money saved from food importation will be used to purchase arms for operations.”
The Crisis Peaks
According to the former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, since 2011, the activities of bandits have left not less than 4,000 people dead, with more than 25,000 cattle rusted.
The crisis also peaked in 2019 with about 300 people killed. According to some security experts, the death toll recorded by the activities of bandits was higher than that of the number of civilians killed by the Boko Haram terror group in 2018.
Has Negotiation Failed?
Barely a month after his inauguration as Governor of Zamfara State, Governor Bello Muhammad Matawalle granted amnesty to 100 suspected bandits. This move was condemned with many questioning how the decision would bring about a feeling of lasting peace to the State.
While the debate over Mattawalle’s decision was on, the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, also announced that his government has granted amnesty to bandits and cattle rustlers in the state warning that no vigilante group members or volunteers should attack or kill any herder.
With the recent killing of 21 villagers in Zamfara State, some security experts opined that the negotiation with the bandits has further emboldened them into furthering their heinous activities.
