Senate wants FG to declare security emergency in Southern Kaduna

The Senate on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to declare a “security emergency” in Southern Kaduna.
The call followed a motion by Senator Danjuma La’ah, who told the Senate at plenary that since 2011 many communities in the senatorial district had been consistently attacked by herdsmen.
He said such attacks had resulted in deaths, loss of property and displacement of indigenes of the communities.
La’ah noted that the district was substantially agrarian with large arable and fertile lands.
He said: “We are aware that there has been regular attack by armed herdsmen, the latest being on the 15th and 16th October 2016 in Godogodo community in Jama’a Local Government Area.
“Subsequent to the attacks, these herdsmen have virtually occupied the displaced communities and are grazing their cattle freely.”
According to La’ah, the Kaduna State Government and the Federal Government had made efforts at restoring peace in the area but apparently, the efforts are neither adequate nor effective to prevent more attacks.
Contributing, Senator Shehu Sani said that the motion was an ample opportunity for senators to intervene in the crisis.
Sani said: “It is not that it is the first time a government will intervene, but there have been series of interventions that have not produced any result.
“It is very clear that security agencies and the government have failed to provide security for people who live around that area.
“What we can do is not simply about condemning what has been happening because there has been lots of condemnation that has not produced any result.”
The lawmaker said what was needful was for the Senate to see the killings as “a matter of life and death.
“I believe the intervention of the senate will seriously help the people of Southern Kaduna to get out of the quagmire which they have found themselves.”
In his remark, the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, said it was clear and very important that the increase in violent killings was of great concern and that something needed to be done.
Saraki said: “We must as a society, be able to live happily and harmoniously together and anything that threatens that is a threat to the country in general.”