Senators divided over report on Apo killings security operation
This followed the rejection of the report by Sen. Sani Saleh
(APC- Kaduna) after its presentation by the Chairman of the joint committee,
Sen. Mohammed Magoro (PDP-Kebbi).
The committee in its findings said that the death of the
eight people and wounding of eleven others was not a case of extra-judicial
killing but the outcome of hastily executed operation.
It further discovered that the operation at Apo was
necessitated by electronic intercepts by the Department of State Services, DSS,
which indicated plans to attack FCT on September 22.
It also found out that four arrested suspects in the custody
of the DSS had confessed to be Boko Haram members.
The committee said that the security agencies had
substantial and convincing intelligence to believe that some Boko Haram
elements were embedded among residents of the said uncompleted building.
Saleh, who is a member of the committee, dissociated himself
from the report on ground that the committee deviated from its terms of
reference.
He said that the committee's mandate was to ascertain whether
the military engaged in extra-judicial killing during the operation or not.
Salehe faulted the military operation which led to the
killing of eight persons for failure to conform with laid down standards of
military tactics during such operations.
He argued that the report failed to state whether those
persons killed were members of the Boko Haram or whether their killing was
extra-judicial.
``I stand to dissociate myself from this report. This report
from the outset digresses from the task given to us. The operation that day was
irresponsible. It did not take care of civilian safety and did not conform with
any known military standard of operation," he said.
Similarly, Sen. Sahabi Y'au (PDP- Zamfara) also accused the
committee of shying away from the issue which was to find out whether those
killed had any link to Boko Haram.
Y'au, who moved the motion for the Senate to investigate the
killings, said that every effort must be made to ascertain whether the killings
were extra-judicial.
``The crucial aspect of my motion has not been addressed
which is whether the people killed are members of Boko Haram. I would like to
know the stand of this Senate on the eight people killed," he said.
The Senate Leader, Sen. Victor Ndoma-(PDP-Cross River), said Saleh should have made a written comment
to the committee instead of making his views on the floor.
He said that the findings of the committee confirmed that
there was reasonable cause for the security agencies to take action to prevent
a potential threat of terrorist attack by insurgents.
``The conclusions reached by the committee can be justified
by the findings of the committee. As a member of the committee, Saleh should
have availed us with a written document but what he did was to ambush the rest
of us with his comments,’’ Ndoma-Egba added.
Sen. George Sekibo (PDP-Rivers) said that the committee's
findings revealed evidence of the existence of terrorist threat in Abuja.
He urged the Senate to encourage the security agencies in
the fight to wipe out the activities of insurgents in the country.
``The fundamental thing is that there is evidence of
insurgents in Abuja and we must therefore work hard to stop their activities in
every part of the country. The FCDA should be directed to pay attention to
monitoring of uncompleted buildings to check any abuse of such properties by
undesirable elements,’’ he said.
Sen. Olushola Adeyeye (APC-Osun) on his part defined
extra-judicial killing as the killing of a person by government authorities
without the sanctions of any judicial proceeding or legal process.
Adeyeye said that what happened on that day in Apo lacked
any judicial process or proceeding and so it fits the description of
extra-judicial killing.
He said that although terrorism was a scourge, no Nigerian
deserved to be killed without due process.
Also speaking, Sen. James Manager (PDP-Delta) urged
Nigerians to be fair in their criticism of the security personnel who work at
grave risk to protect lives and property.
``This clamp down on insurgency is not an easy task. These
lives of our security operatives should be valuable to us since they are humans
too. Their lives are endangered as they go about protecting the rest of the
citizens. So, we must learn to value their lives,’’ he said.
Sen. Suleiman Adokwe (PDP- Nasarawa) frowned at Saleh for casting
aspersions on the integrity of the committee thereby questioning their
character as men of honour.
``Saleh was not at the final meeting of the committee but he
sent a written contribution. I find it unfair for him (Saleh) to portray other
members of the committee as irresponsible. This accusation is a dent on our
integrity and an attempt to paint the committee in bad light,’’ he said.
Sen. Hadi Sirika (APC-Katsina) suggested that the committee
should be given time to rework the report and incorporate the observations
raised before it was brought back.
The Senate unanimously approved all the five recommendations
made by the committee.
One of which was to urge governments at all levels to tackle
the problem of youth unemployment by creating programmes with focus on self
employment.
It also encouraged the Federal Government to continue to do
all within its powers to defeat the Boko Haram.
The Senate further called on the Federal Government to urge
the security agencies to supervise more closely security operations at the
tactical level.
The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided
over the plenary concluded that if 18 out of the 20 members of the committee
agreed with the report, it showed that there was no bias in it.
Ekweremadu said that the Senate had always stood by what was
right; justice and fairness to all concerned and its stand would not waiver
over the Apo report.
``The issue of extra-judicial killing or not sounds to me as
judgmental, only a court of competence jurisdiction or a quasi-judicial process
can come to that kind of conclusion,’’ he said.
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