By Deji Elumoye
The Senate yesterday mandated its Committees on Legislative Compliance and Communications to invite the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, to impress on him the need to implement its resolutions on security-related mandate of his ministry.
The summon was a sequel to the adoption of a motion on the growing insecurity in Nigeria moved by the Deputy Minority Leader, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha.
Rising under Order 42 and 52 of the Senate Standing Rules, Bwacha noted that “the rate of insecurity in Nigeria has not only increased astronomically but has reached a melting point.”
According to him, the challenge has manifested in kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery, assassination and other criminal activities in the country.
He said: “The assassination of Nasarawa State APC chairman and other high-profile cases are still fresh in our memories. A Chinese national was recently abducted in my community; his whereabouts are still unknown.
“There is growing suspicion of complicity of officials of state saddled with the responsibility of protecting the lives and property of citizens, but compromised in the process.
“This is heightened by the arrest of several security operatives involved in armed robbery and kidnapping activities across the country. It is only in Nigeria that communication facilities can be used without a biometric process, no valid identification of passport details (in the case of foreigners) in place to check abuse.”
He said bandits and terrorists negotiate for ransom using telephones and get away with it.
Bwacha said: “How can we be so negligent and insensitive to the safety and security of citizens?
“The Senate is concerned that the confidence between the protected and the protector is being increasingly eroded resulting in the breakdown of law and order as demonstrated in the #EndSARS protest which was subsequently hijacked by miscreants.
“Political permutations across the landscape are attracting politicians to recruit criminals for the purpose of destabilising the corporate existence of Nigeria.
“These evil intents can be easily achieved given the poor control over communication facilities viz the inability of our security apparatus and service providers to effectively manage this all-important sector.”
