Senate vows to defend the sovereignty of Nigeria

The senate has vowed to defend Nigeria’s sovereignty and interest against foreign interference.

The upper chamber of the national assembly gave the assurance when it received members of some civil society groups, who staged a protest to the national assembly.

Emmanuel Paulker, lawmaker representing Bayelsa central senatorial district, and Yusuf Abubakar from Taraba central, received the groups at the national assembly on Thursday.

Commenting on the suspicion that the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) is being emboldened to challenge constituted authorities based on support from Iran, Paulker said Nigeria is a secular state and undue external influence remains unacceptable.

“We will protect Nigerians against foreigners that will come under any guise to destabilise this country,” he said.

“We have taken note of what you have stated. In fact, the senate president specifically asked us to come out here and address this issue. So, we will go back to the senate and look at it intensively.

Speaking earlier Ogenyi Okpowu, national coordinator of the Governance and Change Initiative, urged both chambers of the national assembly to pass resolutions that will check extremism.

“These Iranian representatives in the country operate under the name of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), which has disavowed the secular state prescribed in the constitution,” he said.

“IMN has emphatically declared that it does not recognise the federal government, which the national assembly is the third arm of government. The national assembly should act.”

He said the recommendations of the judicial commission of inquiry set up by the Kaduna state government in the aftermath of last year’s clash between the IMN and the military could be of assistance to the national assembly.

Ogenyi said the findings of the commission “provoked the outlawing of IMN by Kaduna state government, but instead of waking the sect up to the rejection of its extreme views, its members have rather scattered farther afield to other state”.

He said the groups will hold daily protests at the premises of the national assembly “if it fails to act fast and do the needful”.