KEY POINTS
- Nigerian Senators also clashed over governors using N500m security votes.
- Senate ask federal government to set up ranches in order to reduce herder farmer conflicts’
- Security agents ask me to request a joint task force police military to assist Billiri LGA Gombe after violent attacks.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio and former Deputy Leader, Senator Abdul Ningi had themselves at each other’s throat over the role of governors in addressing state security with security votes.
The motion for urgent national importance was on recent attacks in Gombe State’s Billiri Local Government Area.
It was presented through Senator Anthony Siyako Yaro (PDP, Gombe South), who mentioned the growing banditry, killings and displacement of the villagers in the affected villages. Ningi, however, bemoaned in the debate, that state governors had not been able to respond to insecurity despite receiving fat security votes monthly.
Governor’s role in security vote
According to him, each governor doesn’t take home less than N500m every month from security vote but are still relying on Federal Government to solve security problems in states. Akpabio, who was a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, was urged by Ningi to explain why these funds are not being used effectively by governors.
Ningi added: ‘No state government has not been paying security votes.’ ‘Every time there is a security problem, nobody ever talks about the role of the governors,’ it added. ”Governors are the chief security officers of their states and have a responsibility to protect lives and property.”
Akpabio defended the role of governors, saying their efforts at providing security were often invisible. Many of the crimes that security agencies avert working with governors, he added, go unreported.
It is when you become governor that you will find out what they do with the security vote – Akpabio. “Once those crimes don’t make it to the news, security agencies prevent that.” We only hear the bad news but not the good news like preventive measures taken by governors and security agencies’’.
Security, Akpabio stated, is a shared responsibility of the federal, state and local government areas and every other citizen. Indeed, he insisted that no one should be solely to be blamed for the security challenges of the nation.
Senate asks for ranch funding, joint task force, relief support
On a related development, the Senate also called on the federal government to fund the creation of modern ranches in Nigeria as a means to curb the security conundrum emanating from herder farmer conflicts. The goal of this resolution is to decrease clashes, increase herder wellbeing, and increase local economic activities.
The Senate in addition, urged the urgent setting up of a joint police and military task force in Gombe state’s Billiri Local Government area to forestall further attack. An invasion by armed attackers who killed residents, burned their homes and destroyed food and livestock in communities in Sansani, Kalindi, Powishi and Lawushi Daji, has forced them to flee.
On December 11, 2024, the attacks, however, displaced some communities. He described the attacks as a blatant violation of sections 33 and 41 of the Nigerian Constitution, which guarantees citizens right to life and freedom of movement.
The Senate also urged the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the North East Development Commission (NEDC) to support the victims by providing relief materials to displaced residents.
The Senate also asked the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Olufemi Oluyede and Director General of Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate the attacks, fish out the perpetrators and ensure justice for the victims.
Senate ordered its committees on legislative compliance, police affairs as well as national security and intelligence to monitor the implementation of the recommendations so as to ensure compliance with these resolutions.
