Insecurity: Service Chiefs to brief Senate on Thursday

The Service Chiefs will on Thursday brief the Senate on the security situation of the country.

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, made the announcement at the commencement of Tuesday’s plenary in Abuja.

The service chiefs were to appear before the upper chamber on Tuesday but were shifted due to the National Security Council meeting.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the upper chamber had, in a resolution on April 27, summoned the Service Chiefs to brief lawmakers on steps taken so far to address the rising security challenge in the country.

The Senate’s resolution was a sequel to a Point of Order raised by Sen. Sani Musa (APC-Niger).

The motion was on the activities of bandits and Boko Haram terrorists in some Local Government Areas of Niger and other parts of Nigeria.

“Today, the National Security Council is continuing with its meeting that started last week. Therefore, the invited security heads will not be able to come for the briefing.

“We are not sure if they will finish their meeting today (Tuesday). We assume it could spill to Wednesday too.

“So to be on the side of caution, we have now fixed the date for the briefing to be Thursday, May 6.

“I want to appeal to all of us that the briefing will take from the service chiefs and other security agencies and will be very crucial for us to be properly informed, properly guided.

“And if there is any request for a supplementary budget, we should be able to understand why we should consider and approve such a request,’’ he said.

Lawan added that on Thursday, the only item on the Order Paper would be the briefing.

“ We will do that as a special day for the engagement, the interaction between the Senate and the service chiefs,’’ he said.