Benue Killings: Mark, Others Commend Senate’s Intervention
Former Senate President and the senator representing Benue South, Senator David Mark, has commended his successor, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on his timely directive to the Senate Ad hoc Committee on Security Infrastructure to cut short its recess and investigate the New Year killings in Benue State.
Mark who gave the commendation while contributing to the debate on the interim report of the committee submitted to the Senate, also lauded the Senator Ahmad Lawan-led committee for its prompt response to the directive of the Senate President.
The retired general urged security agencies to fish out the perpetrators of the heinous crimes and their sponsors as an immediate step towards addressing the clashes between the herdsmen and farmers in the state.
He said: “Mr. President, there are several recommendations towards addressing these clashes. In the interim, the best way is to arrest the sponsors since the Governor of Benue State said the government has identified the sponsors.
“The long term recommendations of the committee on cattle colony, ranching and others are still good but they can not be implemented now. The best way to save life in the interim is to arrest the sponsors since they have been identified. Saving a life now is as good as saving the situation and preventing it from degenerating further.”
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, stated that all Nigerians are worried about the killings across the nation.
“The Senate is not the only group or body concerned, Nigerians are also worried,” the Deputy Senate President said, “We are tired of always observing a minute silence, we must have peace and security before even thinking of infrastructure and development in the country.
“We should revisit the constitution review where we can start State policing and community policing so as to curb these kind of internal mayhem,” said the Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio.
The Chief Whip, Senator Sola Adeyeye, stated that all Nigerians needed to rise above religion in putting an end to the killings. While Senator Shehu Sani, urged the President to suppress the killings across the country on a long term scale — not just for the particular incident.
“There is no reason why these things are happening, and we have an Attorney General of the Federation, yet no single prosecution,” said Senator Ibn Na’Allah, the Deputy Senate Leader. Na’Allah also commended the Senate President, for setting up the committee to review Nigeria’s security infrastructure for better performance.
Senator Andy Uba, representing Anambra South, called for community police to curb future killings.
“The issue was on CNN which means it is becoming a national embarrassment,” Senator Uba said: “If setting up state police is difficult — we should look into setting up community policing system instead.”
In his own contribution, Saraki noted that the Senate’s debate on the clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Benue and other states has shown that it is not religious-based, but a breakdown of law and order in that part of the country.
“I commend my distinguished colleagues for their sincerity and patriotism during this debate. This killing is also a wake up call for all of us to put all hands on deck to address this crisis,” he said.