After Sharing Debate Questions To Save Them From Embarrassment, Service Chiefs Appear Before House Of Reps
The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and Service Chiefs of the Armed Forces of the Nigerian Federation are currently before the House of Representatives over the spate of insecurity across the country.
The service chiefs who were ushered into the green chamber for the security sectoral debate around 11:26am, include the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa; Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-General Taoreed Lagbaja; Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, and Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla.
It would be recalled that the service Chiefs had earlier snubbed and shunned the lawmakers invitation last Thursday. They instead sent their representatives, a development lawmakers rejected while condemning their disrespect to the National Assembly.
It was earlier reported that the military chiefs and the Inspector General of Police shared a seven-page security sector brief with the House of Representatives members, containing the debate questions to be asked during the interactive session.
In the document titled, “Guiding questions for Hon Members on security sector brief” on Tuesday morning, the leader of the house committee, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, was expected to open the floor of the session.
“Assess how your agency is doing in terms of effective implementation of your mandate? Identify specific areas of challenges and speak to how the National Assembly can assist,” would read the opening question by Ihonvbere.
Thereafter, Bello Kumo, the Chief Whip would ask the second question, “How efficiently are the armed forces and police in achieving their mandate (in terms of time and cost) on the scale of 1-5, 1 being bad and 5 being very good? Give reasons for your answer.”
However, before the executive session, the service chiefs and IGP took turns outlining the various efforts being made to address the security situation in the country.
The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, requested that the National Assembly intervene in enhancing surveillance to cover the backwaters, creeks, and other areas behind the coastline.
According to him, if this is done, oil theft, pipeline vandalisation, and illegal refining will be monitored 24 hours consistently.
IGP Kayode Egbetokun outlined some challenges within the force, including poor logistics provision, insufficient patrol vehicles for police divisions, inadequate training, and poor welfare of personnel.
