Insecurity: House Leadership, Security Chiefs Meet, Discuss Strategies To End Attacks On Trains, Others

The leadership of the House of Representatives led by the Speaker, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, met with heads of security agencies on Tuesday to discuss strategies on how to end the security challenges in the country, particularly the new dimension of attacking rail tracks and invading the Kaduna Airport by bandits.

The meeting, which lasted for over four hours, also had the Ministers of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, and Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika, in attendance.

The House had last week, mandated its leadership to meet with the security heads and the ministers to find out what led to the tragic attack on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line and the attempts by bandits to disrupt operations at the Kaduna Airport and proffer solutions.

The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, led the security chiefs to the meeting, which also had the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Usman Alkali Baba, and other agency heads in attendance.

Before the session went into a closed-door session, Gbajabiamila urged all Nigerians in leadership positions to recommit themselves to service to the fatherland and the oath they swore to defend the nation.

He stated that newer strategies must be introduced to contain the situation at hand if it appeared that the strategies deployed so far were no longer working.

The speaker said, “This is yet another meeting among several others we have held on how to better the lot of our country.

“I don’t think there is anyone here who doesn’t mean well for this country.

“However, what else can we do, apart from what we have done so far? Have we done enough? What else can we do? All arms of government, we have to put our heads together to resolve these security challenges.

“What are you doing that you are not supposed to be doing and what are you not doing that you are supposed to do?”

He recalled that the House held a security summit in 2021 and came out with far-reaching recommendations on how to address the security challenges, but noted that it would appear that none of the recommendations had been implemented.

However, in his response, Irabor reassured the House of the commitment of the security agencies to continue to perform their duties.

Both Amaechi and Sirika also briefed the leadership on the efforts their ministries had made to ensure the safety of travelers before the meeting went into a closed-door session.