Boko Haram: Military insists on emergency rule in Adamawa, Borno, Yobe

Rising from a marathon meeting behind closed doors yesterday, the nation’s service chiefs told the Senate that only emergency rule could resolve insurgency in the North eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

Senators also gave full backing to the presence of the military in the North East, in the fight against Boko Haram. However, the chamber will take a final decision on extension of emergency rule in the affected states tomorrow.
Last Thursday, shortly before Senate President David Mark shut down legislative activities in the National Assembly, he announced that Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba would appear (on Tuesday) yesterday before the Senate to explain why policemen swooped on the premises and teargased lawmakers. Mark was also teargased.
On Tuesday, however, rather than appear in person, Abba sent a representative, a Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations), Wakama Sotonye.
Sequel to this, the chamber gave him the marching orders. But other service chiefs were allowed to brief the chamber behind closed doors. The briefing lasted for almost six hours.
Chief of Army Staff, Kenneth Minimah, Chief of Air Staff, Adesola Amosu and Director General of the State Security Services, Ita Ekpeyong took turns to brief lawmakers behind closed doors. The SSS boss was accompanied to the Senate briefing by the spokeswoman, Marilyn Ogar and several officers.
The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshal Alex Badeh was not at the meeting.
They interacted with the lawmakers for over six hours. On resumption of plenary, Senate President, David Mark said: “The Senate in a closed session discussed extensively with the service chiefs. We’ve noted the challenges and progress by the Armed Forces in the fight against insurgency.
“Let me state that it has  been a very robust discussion.”
Senator Mark also noted that Abba would appear before Senators today and explain the action of his men last Thursday, when lawmakers, National Assembly staff and newsmen were teargased after some lawmakers were prevented from entering the complex
Thereafter, Mark directed Senate Spokesman, Enyinnaya Abaribe to brief newsmen on what transpired behind closed doors.
Said Abaribe: “The interaction was very, very frank and very detailed. We looked into  the constraints of the Nigerian Army in dealing with the insurgency. We also looked into the budgetary provision for them and what has been done so far in containing the insurgency and I can tell you the Senate was very, very impressed by the response from the military and like I said, the military has shown itself to be capable of dealing with the insurgency.
“The fact that they are capable of dealing with the insurgency means that the Senate will do all it needs to within its power to support the military so that we can bring this insurgency to a quick resolution.”
“We also found from their briefing that we have some problems which has to do with the troop levels and the level of equipment and of course, all the other ancillary problems where you have to fight an asymmetrical war, not a formal conflict and we are very glad that that the military is aat this moment, ‎gearing up itself to be able to deal with this asymmetrical conflict in the north-east of Nigeria.
“As of today, we have the briefing and we can assure Nigerians that the military is up to the task of dealing with this matter. The question of state of emergency was not what was on the table today and we are going to also wait until it is brought to the floor of the Senate before we discuss it.
“What the Senate did today was to separate the two questions. Of course, the military continues to insist they need the state of emergency to be able to conduct operations in a manner that will bring it to a quick resolution. When the Senate now takes the issue of the state of emergency, of course you’ll be there, it will be discussed in open plenary…”