Senate President welcomes Amotekun, other regional security interventions

BY OUR EDITOR

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has lent his voice to calls for the restructuring of the nation’s security architecture while acknowledging that the current structure has failed.

Lawan, in an interview with journalists in Abuja, on Monday also welcomed the recent regional and states initiatives to tackle the unfortunate security challenges in the country, describing it as a good idea.

He said the Senate would summon the heads of the various security agencies in the country as soon as plenary resumes this week to work out a realistic arrangement that could adequately tackle the menace.

According to the Senate President, “All hands must be on deck. The federal, states and local governments. More importantly, citizens must be involved. This is because wherever you see security improving, that means the citizens are playing their roles very well.

“The onus lies largely on government. So, we are going to work with the executive arm of government in this regard.

“We would engage the security agencies to find out why the security is deteriorating in many parts of the country.

“We have had series of engagement before but the escalation now has made it mandatory that we need a definite position as a government because we just cannot play politics with security issues.

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“Lives are at stake here. Therefore, the Senate will take a position on how security in the country should be. We believe that the security architecture should be restructured. The present system does not give us the type of outcome that we need.

“Whether it is the federal, state or local government; Even the traditional rulers or others, the most important thing is to secure the lives and property of Nigerians and we would do that.

“The most important thing is to look into the issue of security that is bedevilling this country.

“Apparently and obviously, all hands must be on deck to ensure that we bring back a better security situation that we had before. Presently the story is not good. In many areas we have so much happening that is destabilising our communities and killing of people.

“We believe that we owe Nigerians, the responsibility to intervene and work together with the executive arm of government, actually to work together with other tiers of government – the states and even the local governments.

“We should ensure that we change the way we approach the security issues in this country. Apparently, the system has not been working efficiently and effectively and we have to do something.

“This time around there should not be buck passing, we have to be forthright. We have to say it as it is and we have to do it as it is required.”