The Senate on Wednesday called on the Federal Government to declare all known leaders of terrorists wanted.
The Upper Chamber made this call following a motion presented by Senator Bala Ibn Nallah, raising an alarm over the kidnappings, banditry and related security challenges in Kebbi State.
The motion was entitled; “Urgent need to surmount all kinds of kidnappings, banditry and related security challenges in Wasagu-Danko, Sakaba, and Yauri Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Kebbi”.
Presenting the motion, the lawmaker noted with concern that bandits are moving in hundreds from village to village, house to house in search of cattle to rustle and people to abduct.
“The bandits have been reportedly laying siege around Yar-kuka, Morai, Dankade to Wadako and recently in Bena where 20 people were abducted.”
He said that if urgent steps were not taken, the peace-loving communities might be forced to resort to self-defense by acquiring arms and ammunition.
Contributing Sen. Adamu Aliero (APC-Kebbi) said that the acquisition of 12 Super Tucano jets by the federal government was supposed to help flush out the bandits from their hideous.
“Recently, we purchased Tucano Aircrafts, which can be used to move out the bandits.
“It has the ability to trace the movement of these bandits. If they are rustling cows, I wonder how they move them without being detected.
“I urge security forces to intensify efforts to stop banditry in the state.”
Also, Sen. Sani Musa (APC-Niger) said that bandits and other criminals were causing havoc in communities in many states.
“The security situation is becoming alarming not only in Kebbi but in surrounding states like Niger. Human beings are lost every day, and we enjoy standing up and doing one-minute silence.
“Apart from calling on security agencies to intensify efforts in the fight against insecurity, leaders should fear God,” he said.
In his remarks, President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan said, “let us never be discouraged because sometimes we feel why we are doing this when nothing is happening. There is a limit to what we can do, but we must do what we are supposed to do well.
“We can only do oversight to put pressure, but we can’t execute. We can’t command anyone to go anywhere, but what we do here is very significant. We should continue to debate it and follow on with some actions.
“We have approved significant resources funds recently in both the Supplementary Budget of 2021 and the Appropriation Act of 2022 for armed forces and other security agencies.
“The time has come for all security and defense-related committees to have an oversight on the releases of funds to these agencies.”
The upper chamber called on President Muhammadu Buhari to direct massive military and other security agencies deployed to the areas to conduct a rigorous operation to bring to end banditry and other crimes in the affected areas.