By Abdallah el-Kurebe, Editor
The Senator representing Sokoto East Senatorial District and Chairman, Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Engr. Ibrahim Abdullahi Gobir, has asserted that the position of the National Assembly, NASS, on removal of service chiefs, still stands, especially in the face of continued escalation of insecurity, that recently resulted in the attack of Borno governor, Babagana Zulum.
Speaking at an interactive session with journalists in Sokoto Monday evening, the Senator also called for investigation of roles played by traditional rulers in areas where banditry had continued to escalate in spite of government’s efforts to curtail it.
“I am a member of the ninth Senate, which took a position and I cannot back out from our collective decision earlier taken.
“If the service chiefs were doing well, there would be no need for the call for their sack. Look at what happened to the Governor of Borno State on his way to Baga. It is shameful on the part of our security chiefs. This and previous occurrences where lives and properties have been wasted, have created the need to change military leadership for us to move forward,” Gobir said.
“We did not dream about the horror brought to the country by Boko Haram, bandits and kidnappers. We want a Nigeria where everybody can be peaceful; where people can wake up and move to Abuja without escort and reach there safely.
“Therefore, although we are facing financial crisis, security is a constitutional responsibility of every government and no amount of money spent on that can be said to be too much,” he said.
He however lauded the recent special military operations being carried out by security agencies, which he noted, had brought relative peace to the eastern part of Sokoto.
On banditry in the Northwest and other parts of North, the Senator, while appealing to government to deploy more Policemen in the liberated towns to provide internal security, he also said some traditional rulers should be blamed for their role in the escalation of activities of bandits.
“I quite agree, some of the traditional rulers in these areas are to blame. I am in the opinion that traditional rulers in these areas should be investigated, particularly where there is banditry.
“The government should investigate and find out if there is any role they play and then punish the culprits among them, because we cannot put all the blames on government. Why should government be doing its best and somebody would be sabotaging its efforts?
