The Leadership of the House of Representatives on Monday held a closed door meeting with Service Chiefs and Heads of Security Agencies to discuss security breaches occasioned by the recent ‘hijacked’ #ENDSARS protests across the country.
The meeting is sequel to the resolution of the House on October 20, 2020 to set up an adhoc Committee Chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Wase to be assisted by the Leader of the House, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa and the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu with members drawn from all security related Committees in the House to meet with Security Chiefs and the causes and solutions to the fracas.
The meeting had in attendance the Comptroller General of Nigeria Correctional Service, Ja’afaru Ahmed, Comptroller General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp, Abdullahi Mohammed, DirectorGeneral Department of State Service, Yusuf Bichi and Comptroller General, Nigeria Immigration Service, Mohammed Babandede.
Others who sent representatives to the meeting include: Chief of Defence Staff, represented by John Enenche (Major General), Coordinator of Defence Media Operation and C. Udeh (Major General)
Chief of Defence Training and Operations; Chief of Army Staff, represented by BR Sinjen (Brigadier General), Acting Director of Operation, Army, Chief of Naval Staff, represented by IT Olaiya (Rear Admiral), Chief of Training and Operation, Naval Headquarters, Chief of Air Staff represented by Mohammed Idris (Air Vice Marshal), Chief of Policy and Planning, Nigeria Air Force and the Inspector General of Police, represented by Aminchi Baraya, Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Logistics and Supply.
In his brief remarks before the meeting went into closed door session, the Deputy Speaker said “you may recall that on the 20th of October, 2020, the House passed a motion on the need to address the breach of national security under the peaceful protest in the country under the guise of #ENDSARS.
“With that, the House set up a committee to be headed by myself, the two leaders of the House (Minority and Majority Leaders), Chairmen of all relevant committees in terms of security and three members from each of the committees.
“The essence of the committee is to address, towards a peace exit and ensuring that we have a harmonious nation. This is the essence of the committee. This is our first meeting and we are going to take input from the various services.
“This is a matter that concerns security and no nation discusses its security situation on camera. With this, I want to beg the press to kindly excuse us so that we can have a very robust discussion.”
Sada Soli (APC, Katsina) had moved a motion: “on the urgent need to address the possible breach of national security in the national #ENDSARS protest” in which he expressed concern that the legitimate protest of Nigerians was hijacked by hooligans who had taken advantage to unleash mayhem.
Soli called on the President to issue an executive order to address police brutality and appealed to the protesters to have the patience for the National Assembly and the Presidency to address the problems.
He also called for the constitution of an Ad-Hoc committee to be chaired by the Deputy Speaker, the House Leader, other Principal Officers, as well as the leadership of some relevant Committees like the House Committee on Police to ensure the prayers of the motion are met and get back to the House for further legislative action.
