Concerned by the escalation of terrorist acts and unrestrained
destruction of lives and property in the North-east, the Senate
Committee on Defence Wednesday summoned the Chief of Defence Staff, Air
Vice Marshall Alex Badeh, and Chief of Army Staff, Major General Kenneth
Minimah, to appear before it on Friday.
The summons which
was provoked by last Monday’s gruesome killing of 49 school children by a
suicide bomber in Potiskum, Yobe State, is expected to among others,
witness the senior military officers giving account of their stewardship
especially on why state of emergency rule and high appropriation for
security have not yielded any desired result.
The summons is also coming on the heels of an alarm raised by the Deputy
Governor of Borno State, Mr. Zanna Mustapha, in Yola, the Adamawa State
capital, last week that given the ease with which Boko Haram insurgents
had been capturing territories in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States, the
three states would soon be history.
Disclosing this yesterday,
Chairman, Senate Committee on Army and Defence, Senator George Sekibo,
said the service chiefs had been summoned by the committee to provide it
with vivid account of the security situation in North-east and why
senseless killings and wanton destruction have worsened under emergency
rule.
Sekibo who also said the meeting would present the
service chiefs with the opportunity to get the senators acquainted with
the challenges confronting them in the terror prone states, added that
the tragic news coming from North-east despite the huge assistance
provided to the military so far is embarrassing and offensive to all
Nigerians.
He also said the meeting would be thorough when
compared with previous meetings adding that the situation is more
worrisome in view of the closeness of 2015 polls and scheduled
primaries, saying the situation implies huge difficulties awaiting
conduct of elections and primaries in the area.
Credit: Omololu Ogunmade/ThisDay
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