Senate grills service chiefs today over insecurity

The Senate has said it would grill the Service Chiefs today (Wednesday) and Thursday over the insecurity in the country.

This was disclosed on Tuesday by Senator Tokunbo Abiru while announcing the postponement of the interface between the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions from Tuesday to Friday this week.

Killings and kidnapping of citizens for ransom have been on the rise in recent weeks, causing panic in the land.

The Senate had resolved last Tuesday to summon the Service Chiefs to offer explanations on what they were doing about the alarming insecurity in the country.

Abiru told journalists that due to the scheduled appearance of the Service Chiefs, the Senate had decided to postpone the appearance of the  CBN governor to Friday.

Members of the committee, in line with the resolution, gathered in Room 211, the venue of the planned interface with the CBN governor, from 3 pm to 4.30 pm before resolving to postpone it to Friday this week.

The chairman of the committee, Abiru said, “After waiting for close to two hours for the CBN governor on the planned interface, we have resolved to postpone it to Friday this week by 9 am.

“Postponement of the interface between our committee and the CBN governor arose from the fact that he and other managers of the nation’s economy had been interfacing with our colleagues in the House of Representatives since morning without knowing when exactly, the session would end.

“We would have fixed Wednesday or Thursday this week as a new day for the interface but the Senate has fixed the two days for critical and constructive engagement with the Service Chiefs.

“This made us eventually settle for Friday this week for interface with the CBN governor by 9 am prompt.

“Communication to this effect would be forwarded to the CBN Governor today (Tuesday) and possibly other government officials managing the economy.”

Earlier, in the plenary, the Senate held two-hour closed-door sessions after which it considered a motion by Senator Ahmad Lawan on the demise of a former governor of Yobe State, Senator Bukar  Ibrahim.

After observing a minute silence in honour of the deceased, the Senate raised a nine-man delegation to pay a condolence visit to the Governor of Yobe State and the family of the deceased.