…President to shake up security system, says House Speaker
The Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara was in a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari over the Plateau killings on Wednesday.
Following the increase in gruesome killings attributed to herdsmen especially in the north-central states, President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, met at the presidential villa, Abuja.
The meeting took place at the president’s official residence at about 10.30am just before the commencement of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by the president.
While the meeting was on, Saraki had tweeted on his official handle that it was at the instance of the leadership of National Assembly.
Speaking after the meeting, Saraki said they were in the villa to be briefed by the president in efforts to stem the killings.
He added: “We met with the president to first of all commiserated with him and get a briefing from him. Part of the briefing he explained how steps are being taken to forestall reoccurrence and restore sanity because this is a great concern to him and to us also.
“To see what can be done with NEMA and security agencies, we will all work towards it.
“Nobody is happy with it and we will all come together to ensure that we restore sanity.
“We commiserate with all families. it is our own intention to also go and pay our own condolence visit to the people of Plateau.
“Our general appeal at the end of the day is that we all live together in peace and harmony and we will continue to do our best to see that this kind of thing does not happen again.”
In his remark, Dogara revealed that the president was contemplating a reorganization but the Speaker was not specific on what would be reorganized to make the fight against violence more effective.
He, however, said that it was a fight the government could not afford to lose.
The Speaker stated: “We are here to condole with Mr President, the government and people of Plateau state over this very unfortunate incident.
“He has briefed us on what he saw first hand when he visited Plateau yesterday and measures he is putting in place to ensure that we do not have a relapse or a recurrence.
“These are very sober moments for all of us in a situation where people in hundreds are continued to be killed and we can no longer tolerate this kind of situation as a government.
“Whatever it is, we must not lose the fight against violence because we can’t lose that fight and still keep our civilization.
“If you go to the northeast, you can see the level of devastation caused by Boko Haram. Everything resembling progress from schools to hospitals to government institutions, everything has been pulled down. And we don’t want a replication of this all over the country.
“The president has taken enough steps. These are security issues, they are not matters that you can discuss but he has told us what he is doing, the reorganization that he plans to put in place to ensure that this doesn’t happen.
“My advice to our people not just Plateau State, Benue, Zamfara, Taraba virtually some communities faced with this situation especially in the north, I think the issue of securing our communities, living in peace must be taken as a project. It’s something each and every one of us must invest in whether as traditional rulers, as community leaders, councillors, chairmen, all strata of society must invest in peacebuilding.
“That is the only way we can live in a secure community and ensure that we progress as a country.”
