Train attack: Reps hold 4-hour meeting with service chiefs on review of security strategy

The house of representatives says among issues discussed during a meeting with service chiefs on Tuesday was an “all-important” issue of moles in the military.

Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house, said this on Tuesday while briefing journalists at the national assembly in Abuja.

TheCable had reported how the legislators expressed dissatisfaction with the attitude of the service chiefs and some heads of agencies invited over the recent attack on a train in Kaduna.

The lower legislative chamber had invited Babagana Monguno, national security adviser (NSA); Bashir Magashi, minister of defence; Isiaka Amao, chief of air staff; Yusuf Bichi, director-general, Department of State Services (DSS); Usman Baba, inspector-general of police (IGP); Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation, and Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation.

Also invited were the heads of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).

At the meeting held on March 30, the public officials were absent and sent in their representatives instead.

Idris Wase, deputy speaker, had warned that the legislators should not be taken for granted in the course of executing their constitutional responsibility.

On Tuesday, the invited government officials appeared before the panel consisting of members of the house leadership and security committees.

The meeting held behind closed-doors.

Addressing reporters after the meeting which lasted for four hours, Gbajabiamila said the legislators had “extensive deliberation” with the invited public officials.

“We had an extensive deliberation. The issues we discussed there —unfortunately defence matters are not for public consumption,” he said.

“But I can assure you, it was a lot of collaboration. A lot of ideas came together in terms of how security agents can work together in one voice, as opposed to different voices.

“We talked about the all-important issue of whether or not there are elements within the military — the issue of mole like some people have stated.

“We talked about training and retraining. We talk about capacity and allowances. A lot of them, like I have said, touched on security. For us to have been there for four to five hours, we made some good headway and extensive decisions were made.”