By Mumini AbdulKareem
Senate President and chairman of National Assembly, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki has called for the sack of incompetent security chiefs over the worsening security situation and killings going on in the country.
Amnesty International (AI) had knocked the country in its latest report over the wanton killings of more than 1800 Nigerians and destruction of property that had plagued the country this year along, describing it as the highest in recent times.
Saraki who was speaking with newsmen on Saturday when he visited Agberere and Oloje communities affected by rainstorm in Ilorin promised to facilitate the completion of ongoing projects to meant to solve the problem.
According to him, some of the country security chiefs are working at cross purposes which have aggravated the situation adding that the situation demand collective and collaborative efforts of all arms of government to resolve it.
“This is not something to be politicised. If somebody is not capable and cannot do what he has to do, let others have the opportunity to do it,” a visibly angry Saraki said before accusing the security chiefs and agencies of failing to work together.
“We have had situations where security officials have told us there is poor coordination. One, A is not talking to B, Be is not talking to A. They don’t attend meetings jointly and things need to be done.
“Let us forget the issue of party, these are lives of people – and let’s remove politics. It is not about who is the Speaker of the House, who is the President of the Senate. It is about Nigeria.”
Senate President Bukola Saraki says drastic action has to be taken to end the killings in the country and protect Nigerians
But for the “politicisation of issues”, the Senate President said the warnings of the National Assembly about the dangerous trend in the country would have been since heeded and changes made.
“As you know, the National Assembly under my leadership, many months back, had seen this danger, called for a security summit, we had addressed the issue of security architecture. We had said that there is definitely a failure of the security architecture of the country,” the Senate President said.
To address the alleged failure, the National Assembly had invited security chiefs, especially the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, but were unhappy with the response they got.
He said, “You are all very aware that some service chiefs decided in their own wisdom that there is no need for them to work with the National Assembly to address these issues.
“There is no society that continues to see the kind of killings here and think that it should be business as usual. It requires drastic action, it requires a collaboration of all agencies and all arms of government for us to be serious.”
…says Justice Akanbi was my adviser
By Mumini AbdulKareem
Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki has described the former president of the Court of Appeal and Pioneer chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC), late Justice Mustapha Akanbi as his greatest adviser while he was alive.
Saraki revealed this during a condolence visit to the family of Akanbi weekend at their Water View residence in Ilorin.
The visit was the first by the Senate President to the late Jurist’s family since the incident occurred June 3, 2018 in Ilorin.
While attributing the delay of the visit to the politicisation of the Offa robbery incident, Saraki called on the family to be united and uphold the legacies of their late father now that he is not more.
Saraki who spoke in Yoruba, noted that late Akanbi took him as a son and was always concerned about how he (Saraki) fared during his time as the Governor of Kwara state and afterwards.
“The event happened on Saturday and I was already preparing to come for the prayer on Sunday in Ilorin. But those who don’t want to accept Allah’s decision (on our progress) came up the issue of linking me with the Offa robbery incident and I had to go to Abuja to look at the veracity of the allegation.
“I planned to come to Ilorin on Monday from Abuja to meet with the family but I reasoned they might interpret it to mean we are running away from the issue people will start to insinuate all sort of things. It was during this period that we went to Umrah for the lesser hajj.
“The love late Baba has for me was too great for me not to be present at the event but we have to thank Allah at the end of the day because nobody knows what was the reason for (God) permitting that.
“What is important to me is that Baba was my (greatest) adviser and during my time as the Governor of the state and after I left, I used to come to him for advice and anytime he reads anything in the papers concerning me, he invite me over and I explain to him and he will advised accordingly. He was such a great father to (me) and all of us and I want the children to unite and hold themselves as one now that he is no more”, Saraki submitted.
In his remarks, the former Dean of the Facility of Law, University of Ilorin and one of the son of the late Justice, Muhammed Mustapha Akanbi apologised on behalf of the family for low number of children that received the Senate President, adding that the visit was communicated to them at a short notice and it was difficult to assembly the numerous children some of who are outside the country.
In the entourage of the Senate President were the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Dr Ali Ahmad, APC chieftain, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, Chairman of Saraki Pilgrimage Committee and former Grand Kadi, Kwara State Sharia Court of Appeal, retired Justice Idris Haroon among others.
