The Senate has asked President Muhamadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on security following the rising rate of criminal activities across the country.
The upper legislative chamber made the resolution on Wednesday, hours after armed men suspected to be bandits in the early hours of Wednesday killed one student and abducted an unconfirmed number of students and employees of Government Science College, Kagara, in Niger State.
The motion was sponsored by Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, the lawmaker representing Niger East Senatorial District.
According to Musa, the gunmen who abducted the students and staff stormed the school wearing military uniforms.
He said the actual number of students abducted was not known but that the school had over 1,000 students.
He said: “The bandits were in military uniforms when they attacked the boarding school overpowered the security guards before whisking away the students, the numbers are yet to be confirmed.
“Headcount is being conducted in the school as we speak to ascertain the number of students kidnapped.
“The constitution stipulates that the welfare of citizens is the primary responsibility of government, so governments at all levels owe it as a duty to provide adequate security.
“The abduction is coming on the heels of the yet to be unresolved abduction of 300 students from Kankara, Katsina State.”
Also speaking, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, who represents Niger North Senatorial District, said the kidnappers and bandits were emboldened by the successes recorded by criminal elements in the state in recent times.
He lamented that the invasion of Niger State by bandits is an indication that the safety of lives and properties of residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is being threatened.
Senator Bima Enagi, also from Niger State, declared that the Buhari regime was incompetent to handle security challenges in the country.
He said: “We need to amend the constitution so that governors should be chief security officers of their states since the government at the centre had failed to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians.
“The Federal Government is busy giving palliative instead of creating employment, thus aggravating insecurity.
In his submission, Senator Ahmed Lawan, the Senate President, described the kidnap of the students as unfortunate.
He stated that the new military chiefs will have to secure schools, particularly in northern Nigeria, in order not to stop parents and guardians from allowing their children/wards from acquiring formal education.
He said: “Abduction of students from school happens in the northern part of Nigeria.
“With incidences like this, parents would be scared to take their wards to school, and the efforts of the past and by present leaders at providing education would be defeated.
“Service chiefs have to secure the schools and have to carry the states along.”
The Senate in its resolution also asked President Buhari to implement the recommendations of a report by its ad-hoc panel on security challenges in the country.
Discussion about this post