The House of Representatives leadership Wednesday expressed anger over the failure of Lucky Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Usman Alkali-Baba, Inspector General of Police and Service Chiefs to honour invitation unravel circumstances that led to the attacks on the Kaduna International Airport and Abuja-Kaduna bound train.
Idris Ahmed-Wase, Deputy Speaker of the House who made the feelings of the parliament known at the meeting said the Service Chiefs were only using their meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari as excuse not to honour the invitation of the House and rescheduled the engagement for Thursday.
Akinjobi O.T (Major General) who represented Irabor told lawmakers that: “the Chief of Defence Staff and the Service Chiefs regret not being here.
“They are currently in a meeting on the directive of Mr President for the same reason. They have been at it since last night.”
But Wase retorted that: “these are excuses as far I’m concerned. Mr President has given instructions and we have cooperated as a parliament, but we have not seen the results and that’s why we are concerned. All these are excuses.
“We are not willing, this situation is almost like a blackmail to the government; we are loosing our only pride. My colleague just came from his constituency, Giwa, almost 150 people were killed.
Read also: Buhari risks an awful legacy after Kaduna train attack
“As a parliament we have vowed to ensure the safety of our people. These are no excuses! If you can’t fly, or use the road or train then what else, where are we? Why are we deceiving ourselves? We respect all of you, we honor you but let’s come together and put our heads as people concerned as Nigerians in leadership.”
Sanusi Lemu, a Deputy Inspector General who represented Alkali-Baba said the Nigerian police force and other security agencies were pained by the happenings and apologised for the absence of their “Commandants”.
He said: “it is not really deliberate, it is because of the importance they attached to the parliament that is why they asked us to come.”
However, the visibly angry Deputy Speaker interrupted the Police Officer, saying; it is only in Nigeria that the parliament summon accounting officer and he or she will not turn up.
“It doesn’t happen in any other democratic clime. It’s not done anywhere. If they are here, they are here to give accountability on what’s responsible and that’s the only place they can render appropriate account. The constitution put us as arm to do the oversight. The President doesn’t have that time so that’s why the job is given to us to help him to help Nigerians.
“We are the ones to ask questions and it must be answered. You do not have any excuses. If there’s synergy in operation this won’t happen, so we are rescheduling to meeting to tomorrow 3 pm”.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
