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• Issue will be resolved in national interest – Abaribe
Indications that the Senate is set for a stormy session tomorrow emerged last night as members of the Upper House maintained their opposing stance on President Goodluck Jonathan’s request for the extension of the 18-month-old emergency rule in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states for another six months.
The Senate had invited the nation’s security chiefs to appear before it last Thursday for briefing on the security situation in the North-East zone before crisis erupted between members of the House of Representatives and the police, forcing the Chairman of the National Assembly and Senate President David Mark to shut it.
Mark thereafter fixed tomorrow for the reopening of the National Assembly for normal legislative activities.
Ahead of the planned reopening of the National Assembly, Nigerian Pilot learnt that there have been several meeting among the supporters and opponents of the extension of the emergency regime to fine-tune strategies to realise their goal at tomorrow’s deliberations.
In fact, some Senators from the North-East zone told Nigerian Pilot that they would never support another extension of emergency rule in the affected states.
But the leadership of the Senate told our correspondent that everything would be done to resolve the imbroglio in the country’s interest.
Crisis broke out in the National Assembly on Thursday last week when the Police attempted to stop embattled Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, from entering the complex.
After the crisis, Mark said that the Inspector-General of Police, Abba Suleiman, would be summoned to appear before the Senators tomorrow to explain the police’s action. He further said that the security chiefs would also appear before the Senate on the desirability or otherwise of the extension of the emergency dispensation in the three states.
The Service Chiefs, who were supposed to have appeared last week, were rescheduled for tomorrow’s sitting due to last week’s crisis. They are to brief them on security situation in the North-East while the IG is to throw more light on the fracas between his men and the Speaker.
Nigerian Pilot further learnt that Senators are divided along party and regional lines on President Jonathan’s bid to extend the state of emergency in the affected states.
Consequently, the parties and their leadership in the Upper House have directed their lawmakers to attend tomorrow’s session in case it goes down to voting on the matter. It is against this backdrop that there are speculations that the Senate may record one of its highest attendances in recent times.
Since the crisis broke out, meetings have also been held between the National Assembly leadership and Vice President Namadi Sambo. The National Assembly team to the meetings was led by Senator Mark and Deputy Speaker of the Lower House, Emeka Ihedioha.
A source in the National Assembly told Nigerian Pilot that he had decided to support extension of the emergency rule while their All Progressives Congress, APC counterparts have vowed to resist it.
Senate spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said that the Senate had agreed that Mark should consult with governors of the affected states on the matter.
Senator Abaribe said: “We agreed that the discussion will continue on Tuesday. And also for the purposes of having further information, we are inviting the Service Chiefs to be available to also brief us on the efforts that have been ongoing since the declaration of emergency rule. We hope we will take a decision in the interest of this country.”
However, Senators Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North) and Ali Ndume (Borno South), in separate interviews with Nigerian Pilot, said their colleagues are opposed to the plan by President Jonathan to extend the emergency rule.
Lawan said: “Although we will continue deliberations on the issue on Tuesday, I can assure you that we will not approve the emergency rule extension because the President can deploy the military to any part of the country without declaring a state of emergency.
“We have a very strong military in Nigeria and nobody can doubt their capacity to handle this insurgency, except if the government is telling us that so many things are fundamentally wrong. Discussions on it will definitely continue on Tuesday (tomorrow), but I want to tell you that I am totally opposed to it. I believe that after 18 months of the state of emergency, we should look at other avenues. So many options are being advanced, which would be concluded tomorrow.
“What we need at the moment is the massive deployment of troops to quickly launch serious attacks because we have lost so many territories already. In any case, the President, under Section 218 of the 1999 Constitution has the powers to deploy the military in whatever capacity without a declaration of a state of emergency. I believe that a state of emergency extension is only a waste of time because we have had a state of emergency for 18 months and the result we all know is failure,” he said.
Senator Ndume also expressed his opposition to the proposal, arguing that the extension of the martial rule would further worsen the situation in the three states.
He said: “The state of emergency since it was declared in the three states has taken us from bad to worse. Our fears now are that if we extend it again, we are inviting more problems to ourselves because the insurgents would capture more territories during the period.
“As the representatives of my people, my entire constituents are totally opposed to the extension of the emergency rule because it restricts movements of the civilian populace while the insurgents move freely and have a field day.
“When people are sleeping in the night, the insurgents are freely moving around. By 6pm the whole towns are closed, but the insurgents take control of everywhere,” Ndume said.
Source: Nigerian Pilot
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