Senate joint committee screens service chiefs
(Nigeria) The Senate Joint Committee on Defence, Army, Navy
and Air Force on Monday urged the newly appointed service chiefs to effectively
tackle insurgency and oil theft in the country.
The Chairman of the joint committee, Sen. George Sekibo,
gave the charge at the commencement of the screening of the service chiefs in
Abuja on Monday.
Sekibo noted that potent strategies must be undertaken by
the newly appointed service chiefs to tackle kidnapping, pipeline vandalism and
other security challenges in various parts of the nation.
He said the entire senate was determined to support any
effort geared toward the protection of citizens by eliminating all forms of
lawlessness and threat to national security.
According to him, the screening exercise is in accordance
with the provision of the constitution which mandates the National Assembly to
confirm the service chiefs before they are decorated by the president.
``Our country is going through some major challenges,
including insurgency in the North-East, oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the
South-South and kidnapping in the South-East and other parts of the country.
``If the required attention is not given to these
challenges, they are capable of disintegrating our country or putting our nation's
unity in question. It is our belief that those of you who are presenting
yourself for screening are prepared to work toward achieving tranquility in the
North-East.
``You have to eliminate oil theft and pipeline vandalism in
the South-South, stop kidnapping in the South-East and other areas of the
country,’’ he said.
Sekibo added that the screening exercise was to assess the
competence of the service chiefs in strategic military operations and their
proficiency to combat the prevailing nation security challenges.
It was observed that
some senators of the All Progressives Congress, APC, attended the closed-door
screening session.
The APC senators, included Akin Odunsi (APC-Ogun), Babafemi
Ojudu (APC-Ekiti), Sani Saleh (APC-Kaduna), Atai Aidoko (APC-Kogi), Kabiru
Marafa (APC-Zamfara), Robert Boroffice (APC-Ondo), among others.
It will be recalled that the APC leadership had directed all
its lawmakers to block all legislative proposals from President Goodluck
Jonathan until the Rivers crisis was resolved.
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