Nigerian Senate To Summon FCT Minister, Wike To Explain Plans To Secure Abuja Amid Worsening Insecurity

Senator Kingibe who disclosed this while featuring on a Channels TV programme, regretted that she earlier raised the alarm about insecurity in the FCT but it was ignored. 

Senator Ireti Kingibe has said that the Senate will summon the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Mr Nyesom Wike to appear before the FCT committee to tell the members his plans to secure the people of the FCT from the insecurity that has been ravaging the nation's capital.

Senator Kingibe who disclosed this while featuring on a Channels TV programme, regretted that she earlier raised the alarm about insecurity in the FCT but it was ignored. 

She said, "I know that the minister will be summoned whether he responds or not it is a different matter. As the chief security officer of the FCT, he should have a plan. 

"He should be able to tell us the committee and specifically me this is the plan for protecting the people of FCT. And between him, the police commissioner, the head of security agencies..., DSS is an intelligence agency. So the security needs to know what is going on the ground."

It is reported that Nigeria's seat of power has been recently plagued by insecurity with kidnapping for ransom and armed robbery becoming a regular feature in the city

Lamenting the worsening level of insecurity in the city, the lawmaker representing the FCT, said she was told that the issues of insecurity were exaggerated when she raised concerns.

“I remember a few months ago, I drew the attention of the minister (Nyesom Wike) – when he came for appropriation – to the fact that security is a priority. And I have been saying that for a long time. It started off with the people in Mpape being unable to sleep,” she said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics. 

“Some months back, the girl that was thrown out of a taxi from 'One Chance' that eventually died.

“All these things, I drew his attention to, but nothing was done until it got to the point where we are now.

“And I must commend the security agencies for doing something when we started to scream. But the truth is a little bit earlier, I tried to draw their attention and I was told that it was exaggerated and I said it couldn’t be because of what I was telling them, which I did not get from social media. I got it from my constituents. But I’m glad that everybody now seems to be on the same page

“They’re trying to take it seriously, but a lot more needs to be done. Catching the kidnappers is just the symptom. We need to get to the root cause of what is causing all of this insecurity.”

She said that all the security agencies should be optimised, noting that a lot of Police personnel's had been deployed to protect VIPs, which she said was affecting the security situation.

"We need more community policing. And as I said we need more security within not the usual checkpoints they dismantle by 10 pm; the checkpoints are gone. We need them (security) within the community, who can give information secretly because a lot of them know some of them but it is not happening in the community.

"Our problems are not laws but the implementation. How do you find it difficult to get N20,000 from the bank but you were able to give N10 million in cash? So how do they get the money? There must be strict financial control - stricter," she said. 

She said when the Senate resumes, the FCT committee would meet with the "two ministers and security agency for them to tell us particularly me, what is the plan for protecting my constituent?" 

"It is not just enough now that they know that the threat is real. So what is way forward?" she asked.