BY DAYO ADESULU
The National Assembly led by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila have told President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday to increase funding for the Nigeria Police and recruit more personnel to tackle the insecurity challenge in the country.
The two presiding officers of the National Assembly disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists at the State House, Abuja, on the outcome of the meeting with President Buhari.
Gbajabiamila said the leadership of National Assembly told Mr President of the need to increase funding of the Nigeria Police Force and recruit more personnel to tackle the current challenges.
He said the lower chamber had constituted a committee involving the two arms of government and the party to periodically review the issue of security across the country.
He downplayed the resolution of the House calling for the resignation of Service Chiefs over insecurity since the Inspector General of Police was responsible for internal security of the country.
Mr Gbajabiamila said there was the concern of a “knee-jerk” decision regarding the service chiefs, and also whether the prevalent security problems fall under their job description.
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“Many of us identify that something drastic has to be done, there’s also the school of thought that says since we are talking about banditry, kidnapping, and murders, what have the armed forces got to do with that, anywhere in the world?
So the question then arises that if he changes the service chiefs, does that address the issues of kidnapping and banditry?
The army, navy and air force are outfits set up to tackle external aggression. It is the police that is set up for internal security, such as we are all witnessing,” he said.
The Senate President, on his part, while speaking, said the recent security challenges facing the country required close collaboration.