SENATORS
and service chiefs held a six-hour meeting in Abuja on Wednesday to
review threat to Lagos by the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
Present at the meeting, which held
behind closed doors at the Senate chamber between 10.56 am and 5.00pm,
were the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sa’id Ola Ibrahim; Chief of
Army Staff, Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika; Chief of Naval Staff,
Vice-Admiral Dele Ezeoba; andChief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh.
Also in attendance were the Director
General of the Directorate of State Services, Ita Ekpeyong; the
Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, represented by Deputy
Inspector General (Administration), Suleiman Fakai.
While the security chiefs were billed to
brief the senators on their operations concerning curtailing the Boko
Hara menace and insecurity generally in the country, our correspondents
learnt that the security chiefs were reluctant to give details of their
operations.
At a point during the meeting, the
Senators were said to have queried the representation sent by the IG,
wondering while Fakai who is in charge of administration should
represent the police chief at a meeting to discuss operational
strategies.
Senators were quoted to have said the
DIG in charge of operations could have made better input to the
discussions since the IG was said to be on another official assignment .
Fakai reportedly explained to the Senate
that he had to stand in for his boss because the DIG in charge of
operations was briefing the President on the same issue being discussed
at the senate at about the same time.
A Senator at the meeting who pleaded for
anonymity confided in one of our correspondents, “You know these are
security men and they are fully aware that they are speaking to
politicians. They chose their words carefully so that they will not play
into the hands of people they are dealing with.
“You are aware that one or two of our
colleagues in the Senate are facing investigation or trial for links
with the Boko Haram group.
“After their briefing, we asked general
questions about the seriousness of the threat we are facing and whether
their strategy would get the job done.
“One of us asked what their position was
on calls for dialogue with the sect and the unanimous answer they gave
was that they were in support of whatever decision the President takes.”
Asked what specifically was discussed
about Lagos, the source said, “You know I can’t give you details.
Everyone was concerned because attacking our commercial capital will
have dire consequences. We all agreed that we must do everything to nip
it in the bud. On the whole, all options are open. That is all I can
tell you.”
Another source said, “At some point it appeared as if there was a sense of helplessness over the issue.”
He however said that, unlike before,
they noticed a sense of inter-agency collaboration “at least in the area
of what to divulge.”
A defence source said that the service
chiefs were summoned by the Senate to brief the senators on the state of
security in the country.
The senators were said to have demanded
explanations from the Chief of Defence Staff and the chiefs of the three
services of the nation’s Armed Forces on the escalating cases of murder
and kidnapping in the country.
They were said to have observed that
stories of killings have become a daily occurrence in the society and
this should be stopped.
At the end of the meeting, the President
of the Senate said, “At plenary, the Senate was briefed by the Service
Chiefs and afterwards they took questions on the same subject matter.”
At a press briefing shortly afterwards,
the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, Eyinnnaya
Abaribe, told reporters that the Senate was satisfied with the briefing
it received.
He said, “The Senate devoted the entire
plenary to an interaction with the service chiefs and heads of security
agencies in Nigeria with a view to finding out problems and work with
the different security agencies in Nigeria.
“We are satisfied with the level of
interaction and the efforts aimed at making Nigeria a safe place, we are
calling on Nigerians to cooperate with our security agencies to resolve
these issues. “
Abaribe added, “All options on how to
operate and fight terrorism for which we also signed several protocols I
‘m sure that all these kind of interaction that our security agencies
are having with their counterparts in terms of security means that the
fight against global terrorism is a collective one.”
PUNCH
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