Reps Summon Service Chiefs Over Abducted Girls

 

 Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh

The House of Representatives on Tuesday summoned  the Chief of Defence Staff  and  the service chiefs to brief it on actions they had taken so far to free the  schoolgirls abducted in  Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram members.

 The lawmakers, who resumed sitting in Abuja after a three-week Easter break, condemned the abduction of the girls and  berated  the armed forces for their alleged slow efforts to secure their release.

In the Senate where its President, David Mark, called for full military action against Boko Haram, members were told that some of the abducted girls had been forcibly  married to insurgents.

 A member representing Chibok/Damboa/Gosa Federal Constituency of Borno State, Mr. Peter Biye-Gumta, who moved a motion on the abduction, recalled that “over two weeks” after the girls were kidnapped, their whereabouts had  remained unknown.

 Biye-Gumta,who  told his colleagues  that the parents of the children were traumatised ,  appealed to the military to “expedite action” in securing their freedom.

 He also  called on  the National Emergency Management  Agency to send relief materials  to the communities attacked by  the insurgents on the day the girls were abducted.

 “Some of the parents of these abducted girls are right now lying on the road to the National Assembly, demanding urgent intervention by the government,” he added.

 The Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ms. Nnena Ukeje, called for foreign assistance to support the Federal Government in its anti- terror war.

 In his contribution to the debate, a former Chairman, Committee on Education, Mr. Farouk Lawan, said the girls went to sit examinations when the abduction took place.

 Lawan, who became emotional as he spoke, asked members to imagine for 30 seconds that their daughters were among the girls.

 He said, “We are all parents here. Just imagine for 30 seconds that your daughter is one of them.

 “Very little if anything at all, is being done to secure the release of these girls.”

 Several  other members of the House   blamed the inability of the military to free the girls on failure of the  government.

 This view was spearheaded by the House Minority Whip, Mr. Sampson Osagie, who argued that “never before” had the security and welfare of the citizenry been compromised in Nigeria like in the last five to six years.

 Osagie said, “Security issues are not issues of politics, of ethnic nationality or religion. This is clearly a breakdown of governance; a failure of leadership.

 “Government must do everything within its powers to release those girls.”

 However, Shehu Galandachi brought a different dimension to the debate when he blamed insurgency on political domination at the centre by the South since 1999.

 The Kano lawmaker was emphatic in his argument, gesticulating angrily as he spoke.

 He told the session, which was presided over by the Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, that Nigeria had been avoiding the real cause of the insurgency.

 According to him, so long as “one zone of the country” continues to control power at the centre, insurgency will not end.

“This matter will continue, far, far beyond us. Since 1999, one zone has been dominating power,”  he stated.

 But, Tambuwal quickly cut him short by warning him against deviation from the course of the debate.

 “Galadanchi, do not go out of the realm of this debate. Please, I beg you,” Tambuwal told him.

But the  unperturbed Galadanchi still insisted that the solution to insurgency was the point he just raised.

 Although the debate continued, his point did not seem to have been lost on members.

 The House later adopted the motion, in addition to calling for a national day of prayers  for the release of the girls.

In the Senate , Mark  reviewed the activities of Boko Haram  and submitted that the situation in the North-East  signposted   that the insurgents had declared war on Nigerians.

He therefore canvassed full military action in the troubled states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in order to flush out the  terrorists.

Mark,  who addressed his colleagues on resumption from the Easter break, lamented the  attack on  the Nyanya Motor Park  near  Abuja and the abduction of  the  girls.

He said, “It is obvious that we are dealing with insurgents and  well-funded nihilists who are determined to violently trample upon the secularity of the Nigerian state and destroy the country.

“A modern, vibrant, progressive, multi-ethnic, multi-religious Nigeria is an anathema to them. Because they are fired by zealotry and extremism, they are not likely to be swayed by overtures of any kind.  We must henceforth shift from fighting terrorism to fighting insurgency.

“Our emphasis must therefore be on winning the hearts and minds of the communities in the immediate theatres of conflict.

“The full might and strength of our security services must now be deployed to confront this scourge and we expect our security services to rapidly reorient their assets and capabilities so as to overcome this difficult challenge.

“This must be done within the shortest possible time frame with minimal casualties. Let me emphasise that for them to achieve this, they require the cooperation of all and sundry.”

He advised that  the government must do all it could to immediately identify the sponsors  of the insurgents and their    funding  sources.

“In this connection, nobody who is implicated, no matter how highly placed, should be treated as a sacred cow,” he said.

The Leader of the Senate, Senator Victor Ndoma – Egba, who moved the motion on behalf of his   108 other colleagues,  noted with grief, the abduction of  the  girls.

  Senator Ganiyu Solomon, who seconded the motion, suggested the summoning of the military chiefs to brief the Senate on their  efforts  to  restore normalcy to the troubled parts of the country.

Senator Ahmed Zannah  painted a  gory picture of the plight  of the girls when he informed his colleagues that majority of them had been married out to the insurgents and scattered in villages and towns in  Chad and Cameroon.

Zannah said, “I have been constantly in touch with the security agencies, telling them the  movement of the girls from one place to the other and then the splitting of the girls and eventually their  being married out  to  the insurgents.

“What bothers me most is that whenever I inform  them  of where the girls  are, after two to three days, they will be moved from that place to another   and still, I will go back and inform them ( military) that   this is what is happening.

“I lost hope two days ago when I found out that some of the girls  were moved to Chad and Cameroon. Actually, some of the insurgents move through the Mandara Mountain in Gwoza.

“Even now, some of them are in Kolofata, Cameroon, which is about 15 kilometres or even less to  our border.

“One of the insurgents called somebody in Bama and said ‘I just got married and  I am now settling in Kolofata.

 “Unless there is  a renewed   seriousness  on the part of our military, we have no hope of getting those girls. Even if we are going to get them; it may be     two, three, four or  five at a time.

“They are now scattered. So it is not possible for us to get 50, 60  or    100 in a particular place. This is the position as of  today.”

Ali Ndume  explained that when the insurgents  arrived in  Chibok, they went to the motor park and seized seven vehicles.

He said, “We heard of their activities immediately and we informed the military but unfortunately,  while the abductors escaped with the girls through the eastern part of the area,  the military pursued them  towards the west.”

Senate spokesman,  Eyinnaya Abaribe,  said the    war  against insurgents was lingering because of  internal sabotage.

He wondered for instance,  why a senator   would give information about the terrorists to the military and no action  was  taken.

Senator Atai Aidoko  said President Goodluck Jonathan should go to the troubled areas and provide motivation to the military.

“Our people have given the government  the necessary  support to tackle   insurgency, but unfortunately our leaders are paying lip service to the fight.”

Senator Ayogu Eze suggested that ambassadors  whose  countries were  believed to be  harbouring  insurgents should be summoned to explain  what their  home governments  were doing to tackle  insurgency.

The sessions by the two chambers of the National Assembly coincided with protests by women at the gates to the legislative building, who were demanding urgent actions to secure the release of the girls.

Source:Punchng.com