House of Reps summons to Buhari to appear and explain the growing insecurity across the nation

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has been summoned to appear before the House of Representatives to address the growing spate of insecurity across the nation after a motion calling for him to be invited was adopted yesterday.

Over recent months, Nigeria has been gripped by a series of violent crimes including killings, banditry, armed robbery and kidnappings. Exasperated with the failure of the executive to tackle the crisis, Hon Ahmed Dayyabu-Safana from Katsina State sponsored a motion asking that the president be asked to come and tell legislators what he is doing about the matter and his call was backed by a majority of lawmakers.

reports.

Hon Dayyabu-Safana said that some villages within his Safana/Batsari/Dansamu Federal Constituency had been serially attacked, with many people killed by armed bandits of late. He said that as an immediate step in containing the evil activities of the heavily armed bandits, the president should urgently declare a state of emergency in the constituency.

“The recent spate of the attacks on members of my constituency has reached an alarming stage as the perpetrators of this act continuously kill innocent persons. They set their homes ablaze while defenceless men and women are abducted to an unknown destination and to four villages within my constituency have been under attack with the last 48 hours.

“The villages are Massa in Batasari Local Government Area (LGA), where no fewer than five persons have been killed, Alhazawa in Safana LGA has been totally displaced and Guzurawa village in Safana LGA also has several persons murdered in cold blood. Just yesterday, Gobirawa village came under attack with no fewer than 12 dead bodies littered in the bush while many are still missing.

“These killings have continued unabated and these bandits seem to be unstoppable with a specific instance at Gobirawa village in Safana LGA. The bereaved villagers there were forced to abandon the corpses during the burial and scamper for safety when they sighted the bandits coming back to launch another offensive,” Hon Dayyabu-Safana said.

He expressed worry that the bandits, who operated both at night and in broad day light on motorbikes, paraded sophisticated weapons including AK 47 assault rifles. According to the lawmaker, they paraded other dangerous weapons which they used in committing heinous crimes against his constituents.

Other lawmakers who spoke on the matter, added that the crisis had become nationwide and the government appeared helpless to stop it. Hon Dayyabu-Safana said that in spite of persistent cries from the affected communities, the security operatives appeared not to be proactive, especially when it came to security tips-off and most times failed to respond promptly.

He added: “The fundamental duty of any government is the protection and preservation of lives and property by being responsive in the face of this type of cruelty and atrocity committed against its citizen. It is the constitutional duty and responsibility of this hallowed chamber to take action whenever these levels of inhuman and brutal attacks are being inflicted on any community or group of people.”

Hon Yakubu Dogara, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said it was necessary to invite the president for an address since the issue of banditry had become national. Among other things, the House called for the declaration of state of emergency in the area while urging the National Emergency Management Agency to urgently provide relief materials to the victims of the attacks.