President Muhammadu Buhari is considering the reorganization of the nation’s security architecture to stop further killings of innocent citizens.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, disclosed this yesterday after a closed-door meeting with President Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja. The meeting, which centred on discussion of Saturday’s killings in Plateau State, was also attended by the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki
The meeting between Buhari, Saraki, and Dogara was held at the official residence of the President shortly before the commencement of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Over 200 people were killed and 50 houses burnt in coordinated attacks on eight villages of Gashish and Ropp districts in Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas of Plateau
The villages are Xland, Gindin Akwati, Ruku, Nghar, Kura Falls and Kakuruk all in Gashish District as well as Rakok, Kok and Razat villages all in Ropp District.
In an interview with State House Correspondents after the meeting, Speaker Dogara said they discussed with Buhari on strategies, including security issues, to end the densely killings of Nigerians.
“The president has taken enough steps. These are security issues; they are not matters that you can discuss, but he has told us what he is doing – the reorganization that he plans to put in place to ensure that this don’t happen (again),” Dogara noted
There have been calls on President Buhari to sack the service chiefs, including the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff and Chief of Air Staff and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) who have been perceived by Nigerians to have failed in securing lives and property of citizens in parts of the country.
The National Assembly, Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and several other groups have called for the sack of the service chiefs
The parliament had, at a plenary in April this year, urged President Buhari to relieve the service chiefs for their failure to stop persistent killings of citizens by suspected herdsmen and bandits across the country.
According to Dogara, the President, at yesterday’s meeting, informed the leaders of the National Assembly that his government was taking pragmatic steps to ensure that the country does not witness a re-occurrence of the Jos experience.
Dogara said: “He has briefed us on what he saw first-hand when he visited Plateau yesterday and measures he is putting in place to ensure that we do not have a relapse or a recurrence.”
The Speaker described as sober, this period in which several lives have been lost. He said they were in the Villa to console President Buhari, Nigerians and the people of Plateau over the killings.
His words: “We are here to condole with Mr. President, the government and people of Plateau state over this very unfortunate incident. These are very sober moments for all of us in a situation where people in hundreds are continued to be killed and we can no longer tolerate this kind of situation as a government.
“Whatever it is, we must not lose the fight against violence because we can’t lose that fight and still keep our civilization.
“If you go to the North-East, you can see the level of devastation caused by Boko Haram, everything resembling progress from schools to hospitals to government institutions, everything has been pulled down. And we don’t want a replication of this all over the country.
“My advice to our people, not just Plateau State, Benue, Zamfara, Taraba virtually some communities faced with this situation, especially in the North, I think the issue of securing our communities, living in peace must be taken as a project. It is something each and every one of us must invest in, whether as traditional rulers, as community leaders, councillors, chairmen. All strata of society must invest in peace building. That is the only way we can live in a secure community and ensure that we progress as a country.”
