{"id":17247,"date":"2019-04-25T19:23:09","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T19:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=17247"},"modified":"2019-04-25T19:23:09","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T19:23:09","slug":"senate-summons-ig-over-killings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=17247","title":{"rendered":"Senate summons IG over killings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <strong>Cecilia Ijuo<\/strong> (<strong>NAN<\/strong>)<br \/>\nThe Senate has summoned the Acting\u00a0 Inspector-General of Police(IG)\u00a0 Mohammed Adamu to appear before the upper chamber and brief it on increasing spate of killings in different parts of the country.<br \/>\nThis followed a 10-prayer motion by Sen. Shehu Sani at plenary on Thursday.<br \/>\nThe bill titled, \u201cSenseless Killing of a Briton and Abduction of Three Others in a Holiday Resort in Kaduna State by\u00a0 Bandits\u201d was co-sponsored by all other lawmakers.<br \/>\nThe Senate also urged security agencies to immediately deploy drones and interceptors in tracking kidnappers that were asking for ransom.<br \/>\nIt equally urged the Federal Government to set up an inter-agency task force to tackle cases of banditry and kidnapping in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Niger states.<br \/>\nFurthermore, the Upper Chamber urged security agencies to give special cover to foreign workers and tourists.<br \/>\nIt also urged telecommunication companies to provide security agencies with information in areas where kidnappings were taking place.<br \/>\nPresenting the motion, Sani expressed concern over the spate of killings<br \/>\nContributing, the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, said the creation of state police was one of the major solutions to cases of killings in the country.<br \/>\nHe further urged kidnap victims to open up on the hideouts and activities of kidnappers, to assist security agencies in arresting them.<br \/>\n\u201cKidnap victims should learn to open up and narrate their ordeal so that their hideouts can be traced.<br \/>\n\u201cFor instance, some people were kidnapped some time ago and one of them was a customs officer.<br \/>\n\u201cThey manhandled him more than their other captors and the ransom demanded from him was more than that of others.<br \/>\n\u201cAs they kept beating him a lady advised him to pretend to be a fake customs officer and that was how they brought down the ransom from 10 million.<br \/>\n\u201cFrom what has happened to the Briton it is time we tackle this menace. It is becoming an embarrassment to the country, so, if it means declaring an emergency it is necessary.<br \/>\n\u201cWe need to declare a national state of emergency to enable the government put in place measures to end this problem.\u201d<br \/>\nSen. Joshua Lidani(PDP-Gombe) said the development if not addressed as soon as possible would greatly affect tourism and investment, among others.<br \/>\nHe said, \u201cIt has become a routine to observe a minute silence and it is disheartening.<br \/>\n\u201cThe implication of the spate of killings in the country is enormous. It affects tourism as countries might begin to warn their nationals against coming to Nigeria.<br \/>\n\u201cEveryday we are inundated with reports on killing and kidnapping; in fact, armed robbery is no longer in vogue. If not tackled we will not have an investment in this country.<br \/>\n\u201cNigeria is becoming a killing field and this will have an effect on investment and tourism. We need to do something drastic, something unusual that we have not done before.<br \/>\n\u201cWe need to mobilise the military to those areas and we should not be shy of asking for help, \u201che said.<br \/>\nSen. Babba Kaita(APC-Katsina) called for specific suggestions on how to tackle the problem.<br \/>\nHe said it was a collective fight that must not be left for the Executive alone.<br \/>\nThe lawmaker said, \u201cwe should marshal out plans from the chambers of this Senate to secure this country.\u201d<br \/>\nThe Deputy Minority Whip, Sen. Emmanuel Bwacha also called for the creation of state police.<br \/>\nHe also called for synergy between the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) vigilance groups and locals of affected states, adding that such move would drastically reduce the menace.<br \/>\n\u201cWe also need massive military deployment to these flashpoints, as well as come up with capital punishments for these crimes.\u201d<br \/>\nSen. Kabiru Marafa (APC-Zamfara) said, \u201d the north is at war. Unless something is done, I am afraid that in the next two to three years, the situation might be out of control.<br \/>\n\u201cThis has become a business because there is technically no business in the north. The way forward is to fight corruption and set standards.\u201d<br \/>\nSen. Andrew Uchendu (APC-Rivers) said the major reason for the menace was the high level of unemployment.<br \/>\nHe noted that \u201cuntil our youth are engaged, this problem will continue\u201d.<br \/>\n\u201cWe need to find appropriate economic policies to engage idle hands.\u201d<br \/>\nThe President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, said it was time workable solutions were employed to nip the problem in the bud.<br \/>\n\u2018\u2019When we talk about the way forward, we need to be honest with ourselves because in addressing these issues we need to be frontal on what has led us to where we are today.<br \/>\n\u201cWe must look beyond our political parties and see it as a problem that all of us need to address.<br \/>\n\u201cWhere there is a fault, we must be bold enough to say where the fault is and where there are sanctions we must be bold as well to say so,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nSaraki expressed optimism that with the new Police boss, the relationship between the National Assembly would improve.<br \/>\nHe said, \u201cyou have all been in this chamber for one year and noticed that we could not even communicate, converse or engage with the Nigeria Police.<br \/>\n\u201cYou were all here when the Head of Police refused to even come before us.<br \/>\n\u201cHow can we work together to move things forward because, at the end of the day, we must begin to sit down with those in charge and discuss what we need to do.<br \/>\nOn the death of Faye Mooney, the Briton killed in Kaduna recently, the president of the Senate said it was unfortunate.<br \/>\n\u201cHere is a lady that used to work in Iraq and Kosovo and did not die until she came to Nigeria. That does not portray this country in a positive way at all.<br \/>\n\u201cAs the Deputy Senate President and Senator Lidani said, there are going to be questions of people coming to invest in a country like this.<br \/>\nOn efforts made by the legislature in the past, Saraki said, \u201cIf you recollect we invited the heads of security agencies and directed them to submit to us what they need and there was no response till date.<br \/>\n\u201cSo, what I think is that we should take it up from here. We should not get discouraged.<br \/>\n\u201cWe should go back and review where we are and find a way for our committees to re-engage the heads of our security agencies,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nBy <strong>NAN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Cecilia Ijuo (NAN) The Senate has summoned the Acting\u00a0 Inspector-General of Police(IG)\u00a0 Mohammed Adamu to appear before the upper chamber and brief it on increasing spate of killings in different parts of the country. This followed a 10-prayer motion by Sen. Shehu Sani at plenary on Thursday. The bill titled, \u201cSenseless Killing of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}