Insecurity: Senate asks security chiefs to submit budget for special funding

The senate has asked heads of security agencies to send a special budget that would enable them tackle insecurity in the country.

The senators had summoned heads of security agencies over the proliferation of firearms and widespread killings across the country.

The lawmakers were briefed in a closed-door session that lasted about four hours on Wednesday.

Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, chief of defence staff; Lawal Daura, director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS) and representatives from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and office of the national security adviser (ONSA) were present at the senate chamber.

A representative of Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police (IGP), was also present.

Speaking after the closed session, Senate President Bukola Saraki said the lawmakers gave the security chiefs two weeks to present the budget.

“The senate in a closed committee of the whole, received brief of the chief of defence staff, the director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS), representatives of the comptroller-general of Immigration, inspector-general of police, comptroller-general of customs on the proliferation of dangerous arms, spate of killings and kidnappings by hoodlums across the country,” Saraki said.

“Thereafter, they answered questions from the senators bothering security, insurgency, terrorism, kidnapping and other talks on national security matters.

“And on the whole, we decided directly that on our part, certain outstanding bills or protocols that needed to be given a fast track, be addressed immediately to see that they can be passed as soon as possible in order to strengthen security architecture.

“Secondly, of course, we all observed the funding issue and also agreed that there must be special funding. So we gave them two weeks to present their own budget on this are of special funding that we think will go a long way to improve the security situation in the country.

“Our great concern also was the issue of coordination among the security agencies and on that, we’ll be looking on how to strengthen that aspect of insecurity through constitutional law passage.”

The senate president reiterated that the lawmakers will “ensure that this unfortunate trend of killings is brought to an end”.

“We all agreed to continue to work very closely and cooperate in order to address this issue and we are confident that changes will be seen in this area. We have our role to play and they are committed to playing their own role and we hope that over the next couple of weeks, we will begin to take action on some of these things that we are committed to,” he said.