TheCable

Ahmed Baba Kaita, senator representing Katsina north, says the best efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari in tackling insecurity in the country are not good enough.

Speaking on the floor of the senate on Tuesday, Kaita said there is a need to reassess the efforts of the military in combating the insurgency in the north-east.

The legislator was contributing to a motion sponsored by Kashim Shettima, senator representing Borno central.

Shettima had drawn the attention of his colleagues to the killing of 45 farmers at Kwashabe village in Borno.

The Katsina senator said explanations from the military on the widespread killings are unacceptable.

“It (insecurity) is now facing us eyeball to eyeball, we have to sit down with this military and reassess their performance in the north-east,” he said.

“Day in day out, same scenarios keep repeating themselves, then something is fundamentally wrong. If we allow this go, let’s be ready for another mourning.

“Despite the efforts of the federal government on the security issues of Nigeria – I totally believe the president is doing his own best but then doing your best is not enough when we cannot see the result on ground and this is what is happening.”

Kaita said the statement credited to Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, on the slain farmers not getting clearance before going to their farms “is highly irresponsible.”

“Let me say if the statement credited to the spokesperson of Mr President, Garba Shehu, is true then let me say that it is highly irresponsible,” he said.

“You might be exposed to information that we and other Nigerians do not have but at that point in time when everybody was mourning the loss of citizens who are innocently killed and who have gone into their farms despite the challenging economic situation in this country and there by losing their lives and somebody say is because they did not take clearance. We don’t harvest crops in one day, we harvest them overtime.”