Senate joins Obasanjo in tasking Buhari for National Security Summit

The Senate on Tuesday called on the federal government to immediately convene a National Security Summit to address the insecurity ravaging the country.

It would be recalled that President Olusegun Obasanjo had made this call in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday.

The call followed a point of order raised by Sen. Ayo Akinyelure (APC-Ondo), over the killing of one his constituents, Mrs Funke Olakunrin.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Olakunrin, daughter of Pa Reuben Fasoranti, a leader of the Afenifere Group, was shot dead by gunmen along the Akure-Ore in Ondo State on Friday.

Akinyelure expressed concern over the killing and similar ones, which he described as “increasing and incessant murder of innocent Nigerians by gunmen along major highways in the country.”

He also cautioned that if immediate actions were not taken, the development might lead to ethno-religious crisis, especially in the Southern part of the country.

While urging the Senate to observe a minute silence in memory of the deceased and others who died in similar circumstances, he said the attention of the Federal Government should be drawn to the situation.

Also, Sen. Tolu Odebiyi (APC-Ogun) called on the Senate as an institution to sit down with the presidency and the security formations in a meeting to take immediate action.

“We have to demand for an action by security forces and the presidency.

“There’s nothing we do here that is safe if we don’t get our security right. We can’t be coming here everyday, mourning and observing one minute silence when Nigerians are being killed.

“As a Senate, we should send a delegation to meet with the presidency and the security forces to address what is happening.”

However, the Deputy Leader of the Senate, Sen. Ajayi Boroface (APC-Ondo), urged his colleagues to be cautious about linking a particular tribe as perpetrators of the attacks.

“We should approach this matter maturely and encourage the federal government to improve on the state of security.

“We should not link a particular tribe with the killings, as being observed in the social media. Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani people have all been killed,” he said.

The President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, in his submission, equally lamented the situation, which he said was being felt across the country.

He, therefore, said stakeholders should immediately be converged for a robust national security summit to discuss and address the situation.

“The security situation is all over the country. It is very unfortunate just like all our colleagues have said in their contributions.

“We should have one national security summit on this. The summit should be all-

encompassing and all-inclusive, involving other arms of government and various security formations,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Senate, in its resolution, “unequivocally” condemned the killings, calling on the Inspector General of Police to extend his dragnet to fish out the perpetrators.