***Senate asks FG to declare all known leaders of terrorists wanted
The senator representing Ogun West Tolu Odebiyi has warned that unless under aged marriage that gives room for children that are already in poverty to procreate is outlawed in the North, insecurity will continue to linger
The senator spoke while contributing to a motion entitled “Urgent need to surmount all kinds of kidnappings, banditry and related security challenges in Wasagu-Danko, Sakaba and Yauri Local Government Areas of Kebbi”.
Continuing Odebiyi said,
“We seem to be very reactive and very adhoc on how we solve problems such as security in this country but I think we need to go a bit deeper, if you look at from 2013 we had about 4million children out of school, today you have 14m children out of school add that to about 100 million people in poverty especially if you look at the northeast and the northwest.
“It is a fertile ground for recruiting bandits especially when you put that in conjunction with the break down of countries around Nigeria in the Sahel and all those areas it will provide a fertile environment.
“If you add that to under age marriage, children that are already in poverty giving birth and those children will grow up and land in poverty again
Military cannot do so much it is a holistic approach.
“If we sit down here by 2025 we will have 20million children out of school, the security issue in this country will continue to get worse.
“So all these adhoc reaction of calling on Army, the police, we must have a compressive approach and declare a marshal law against out of school children.
“As long as we have poverty and more children out of school, as long as we have under age children giving birth, to more poverty, it is a fertile ground.” He said Nigeria is bordered by countries where terrorist groups aggregate to recruit. The children are vulnerable for recruitment
He said adhoc reaction and buying of Tucano jets and bombing will not solve the problem because the variables are not there for these issues
“This thing must be looked at holistically. You have been talking about these out of school children, in 2013 we had 4million, now 2022 we have 14million and by 2025 we will have 20million out if school children.
These are the issues that are creating banditry, terrorism .”
The Senate in it’s resolution on the motion which was moved by Sen. Bala Ibn Na’Allah (APC-Kebbi) and co-sponsored by 12 other senators during plenary urged the Federal Government to declare all known leaders of terrorists wanted.
The upper chamber equally called for the establishment of an operational base within Danko/Wasagu and Sakaba Local Government Areas of Kebbi affected by “the current rise in security challenges”.
The upper chamber also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to deploy massively, the military and other law enforcement agencies to conduct a rigorous operation that will bring to an end the banditry and cattle rustling in the affected LGAs.
It equally urged the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to as a matter of urgency provide relief materials to the affected areas.
The Senate also urged all relevant agencies, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and private philanthropist to come to the assistance of the victims of violence and humanitarian disaster.
Moving the motion, Na’Allah said that “it is no longer news that the bandits are moving in hundreds from village to village, house to house in search of cattle to rustle and people to abduct.
“The bandits have been reportedly laying siege around Yar-kuka, Morai, Dankade to Wadako and recently in Bena where 20 people were abducted.”
He further said that if urgent steps to tackle the security challenges were not taken, the peace-loving communities may be forced to resort to self-defence by acquiring arms and ammunition.
Contributing Sen. Adamu Aliero (APC-Kebbi) said “recently we purchased Tucano Aircrafts which can be used to move out the bandits.
“It has the ability to trace the movement of these bandits. If they are rustling cows, I wonder how they move them without being detected.
“I urge security forces to intensify efforts to stop banditry in the state.”
Also, Sen. Sani Musa (APC-Niger) said that “the security situation is becoming alarming not only in Kebbi but in surrounding states like Niger.
“Human beings are lost every day; and we enjoy to stand and do one minute silence.
“Apart from calling on security agencies to intensify efforts in the fight against insecurity, leaders should fear God,” he said.
In his remarks, President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan said “let us never be discouraged because sometimes we fill why are we doing this when nothing is happening.
“There is a limit to what we can do but we must do what we are supposed to do well.
“We can only do oversight to put pressure but we can’t execute. We can’t command anyone to go anywhere but what we do here is very significant.
“We should continue to debate it and follow on with some actions. We have approved significant resources, funds recently in both the Supplementary Budget of 2021 and the Appropriation Act of 2022 for armed forces and other security agencies
“The time has come for all security and defence-related committees to oversight on the releases of funds to these agencies” Lawan said.