The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on Monday held an expanded meeting over the security challenges in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Similar meeting held last week at the office of the Senate President to address the security concerns of the FCT.
“The purpose of this particular meeting is to widen the scope of our interaction and the entire idea is to find solution to the security situation in the FCT,” Lawan said.
Unlike the previous meetings, Monday’s meeting was attended by the Minister of Communications, Isa Ali Ibrahim, and the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, with other top officials directly involved in the security of Abuja.
Lawan said the presence of the communications minister was to show that the way forward will require application of information technology while the presence of the NIA DG was to attend to the international dimension in addition to the national security challenge facing Abuja.
A statement by Ola Awoniyi, media adviser to Senate President, which was made available to TheNiche said Lawan was concerned that Abuja, being the seat of power, should have a better security architecture.
“This is the seat of government and I believe that it will be a reflection of what the security situation in Nigeria is. The story is not very good.
“This meeting will therefore look into every possible solution going forward on how to address the security situation,” Lawan said.
Some Senators in attendance included the Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, Deputy Chief Whip, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Chairman, Senate committee on Interior, Senator Kashim Shettima, Chairman, Senate committee on Police Affairs, Senator Halliru Jika and Senator Ifeanyi Ubah.
Meanwhile, Lawan said on Monday that it was sheer misrepresentation of fact to say that journalists were not allowed to cover the budget defence sessions going on at the National Assembly.
Lawan was reacting to report published in some dailies last week that the media were shut out of the coverage of the budget defence at the various Senate committees.
“There is no shut out of the press from what we do,” Lawan told reporters.
“We need the press to tell Nigerians what we are doing. You (journalists) are our friends. That was a misunderstanding (of what happened),” Lawan said.
The Senate President said it should be expected that journalists, at some point, may be excused from such meetings when sensitive issues that bother on national security are being discussed.
“I want to assure Nigerians that whatever we do in this Senate and indeed in this National Assembly is in the best interest of Nigeria. We will not compromise on anything as far as the national interest is concerned,” Lawan said.
