Senate Gives Security Agencies Two Weeks To Submit Special Budget To Tackle Insecurity

Senate in plenary (File Photo)

Senate Demands Special Budget To Fight Insecurity

The Nigerian Senate has urged the heads of security agencies in the country to work on and submit a special budget aimed at tackling insecurity in the country.

As reported by Naija News, the senators had summoned heads of security agencies over the proliferation of firearms and spate of killings around the country.

The closed door briefing which took the senators about four hours yesterday, also had in attendance, a representative of Ibrahim Idris, Inspector-General of Police (IGP).

After the meeting, Senate President Bukola Saraki declared that the security heads were given two weeks to present the budget.

“The senate in a closed committee of the whole, received brief of the chief of defence staff, the director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS), representatives of the comptroller-general of Immigration, inspector-general of police, comptroller-general of customs on the proliferation of dangerous arms, spate of killings and kidnappings by hoodlums across the country,” Saraki said.

“Thereafter, they answered questions from the senators bothering security, insurgency, terrorism, kidnapping and other talks on national security matters.

“And on the whole, we decided directly that on our part, certain outstanding bills or protocols that needed to be given a fast track, be addressed immediately to see that they can be passed as soon as possible in order to strengthen security architecture.

“Secondly, of course, we all observed the funding issue and also agreed that there must be special funding. So we gave them two weeks to present their own budget on this are of special funding that we think will go a long way to improve the security situation in the country.

“Our great concern also was the issue of coordination among the security agencies and on that, we’ll be looking on how to strengthen that aspect of insecurity through constitutional law passage.”

The senate president reiterated that the lawmakers will “ensure that this unfortunate trend of killings is brought to an end”.

“We all agreed to continue to work very closely and cooperate in order to address this issue and we are confident that changes will be seen in this area. We have our role to play and they are committed to playing their own role and we hope that over the next couple of weeks, we will begin to take action on some of these things that we are committed to,” he said.