Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, has suggested that the country security architecture may be re-designed in a manner that will see some security chiefs being sent packing.
There have been repeated calls for the removal of these and service chiefs on account of their failure to stem daily loss of lives and breakdown of law and order.
Last Tuesday, former Education Minister, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, undertook a one-woman protest to the office and residence of President Muhammadu Buhari to protest incessant killings in the country. She was stopped in her tracks and sent back at one of the gates hundreds of metres from the main gate of the office.
Said Dogara: “Today, I and President of the Senate, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, met with President Muhammadu Buhari over the Plateau violence. We requested for the meeting in order to hear from the President the steps and measures he is taking to end the orgy of killings and violence not only on the Plateau but in other parts of the country.
“The President briefed us on what he saw firsthand when he visited Plateau state on Tuesday and the measures he is putting in place to forestall recurrence. The President has taken enough steps and told us what he is doing especially the reorganisation that he plans to put in place to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
“We also used the opportunity to advise the President on other measures and actions that will help bring lasting peace in our country in accordance with the resolutions passed at the joint emergency closed-door session of the National Assembly held some weeks ago.
“These are very sober moments for all of us. In a situation where people, in hundreds continued to be killed, we can no longer tolerate this kind of situation as a government. We call on all relevant government agencies to quickly provide emergency relief services to people in the affected areas.
“The House of Representatives and indeed the National Assembly will continueto work towards providing all necessary legislative backing to the security agencies more especially funding needed to reform and equip our armed forces to tackle the prevailing security challenges confronting us as a nation.
“I am also restating my earlier call for a total reform and overhaul of our internal security architecture which has failed to address the spate of insecurity in the land. I want to seize this opportunity to once again offer our condolences to families of victims of violence in Zamfara, Benue, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Borno, Yobe and other places and urge our citizens to embrace peace without which there can be no meaningful development”.