By Ajuma Edwina Ameh
Worried by the spate of kidnappings and killings in some part of the country, the Senate has urged the Federal Government to deploy fighter jets to smoke out terrorists from their hideouts.
The Upper Chamber also faulted the inability of the military to contain the situation despite several calls to that effect.
The call was made during plenary on Wednesday following a Point of Order raised by Senator Bello Mandiya representing Katsina South.
The point of order, which was seconded by his counterpart, Senator Kabir Abdullahi Barkiya (Katsina Central), was 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 and Katsina State’’.
Relying on Order 41 and 51 of the Senate Rules, Mandiya noted that the act of banditry and kidnapping has become a daily occurrence in Katsina with huge consequences of wanton loss of lives, means of livelihood and displacement of communities.
The lawmaker recalled that on Sunday, January 31, 2022, gunmen struck at Ruwan Godiya, a community in Faskari Local Government Area of the state with some 38 people kidnapped.
He said: “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.
“I’m 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.”
On his part, Sen. Barkiya called on President Muhammadu Buhari to give a marching order to the military to smoke out bandits now officially declared as terrorists from their hideouts.
“We have to look at it critically. Maybe we assume that the security agents are doing their best but to me, they need to do more than their best. How can the bandits just go and kidnap 38 people in a single community?
“Since we have declared these people terrorists, what are we still waiting for? Can’t we just order the soldiers to enter the bush and just bomb all of them? We all know where they are. The government should give an order so that they would be bombed in their hideouts,” he said.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan noted that the repeated cases of kidnapping and killing made it imperative for the military to “wake up” and to protect Nigerians.
He wondered why full scale action was yet to be carried out by the military in spite of increased funding in the 2022 budget by the Executive and National Assembly.
“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.
“Secondly, when we declared the bandits as terrorists, my understanding was they are going to be dealt with ruthlessly now. I wonder whether that is the case.
“The military like some of our colleagues have said, need 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,’’ Lawan said.
Accordingly, the Senate urged the security agencies to comb all known hideouts of the kidnappers and rescue the 38 persons abducted by the gunmen in Ruwan Godiya.
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