Editor
By Fatima Saka
Governor of Kebbi state Nasir Idris spends five hundred million naira monthly for the Nigerian Army to safeguard the state from banditry and other insecurity challenges, says senator Sen Musa Garba Maidoki representing Kebbi South Senatorial District.
Senator Musa quoted the governor while commenting on a point of order raised by senator Jibrin Isah on rehabilitation of Omala Community attacked by bandits in Kogi state during the plenary on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to the senator representing Kebbi South senatorial district, “My governor was telling us that everybody spent 500 million on the Nigerian army. 500 million on the Nigerian army.”
While briefing the News men a day after, on insecurity confronting the state, senator Maidoki lamented that with the tune of 500 million monthly given to Nigeria Army is unspeakable.
He further stressed that with the money the senate allocated to the security agencies on security issues, “we are asking the senate, where is the money we passed for the Army to do their job? What is it for? The Army now has to wait until the State Governor gives them grants before they do their job?
“That is the question for Nigerians to understand and to know, and it’s sad! We appropriated money for security, and we think that money is big enough to address the problem.
“I cannot understand why the Army or any law enforcement agency will have to wait for the state Governor, the Police, will wait for the Governor to give them counterpart funding before they undertake their job. And this is now a norms in Nigeria’s security system.
If the police send a detachment to any constituency, if the Governor didn’t take the bills, they will not send the detachment. We don’t know whether the money we have given them is not sufficient.
And if it is not sufficient, none of them come back to the National Assembly and tell us the money you gave us is not sufficient to do their job. We have a memorandum of understanding with the Nigeria Security Chiefs, what they were going to deliver at the end of this year.
We are waiting to see if the money we give them will be delivered or not on their promise. If they didn’t, we will tell the President that we had an agreement before we confirmed them, and we have KIPs together with them. At the end of this year, we are going to check the KIPs. And we will tell Nigerians where they stand on those KIPs.
Speaking on the situation of banditry in the state, the senator emphasizied that they are not doubting the improvement in security, “particularly in my area where I can speak authoritatively. We have full improved security.
“But there are still pockets of problems there. I told the Senate some villages in my constituency came and met me on the problem they are facing on banditry, being their representative in the Government.
“I have directed them to go and see the State Governor. They went to Birnin Kebbi unfortunately, they didn’t meet with the State Governor, but they presented their letter to the Government House.
“They came back, two weeks later, bandits enter; amongst those people who came, 12 of them where killed in their own farms. And as their representative, I feel completely responsible even though I don’t have the power on the instrument to stop the banditry .
“What they are expected to do, they have done it. They came to me, they reported this problem! They went to the Governor, they reported this problem! Unfortunately, we are not able to save their lives. So sad we went for condolence, and that is the most unfortunate of the unfortunate,” he said.
