Senator Ireti Kingibe has said the Senate will summon the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Nyesom Wike, over worsening insecurity in the nation’s capital.
Mrs Kingibe, who represents the FCT in the upper legislative chamber, disclosed this during an interview on Channels TV on Sunday.
“I know that the minister will be summoned; whether he responds or not, it is a different matter. As the chief security officer of the FCT, he should have a plan.
“He should be able to tell us the committee, and specifically me, that this is the plan for protecting the people of FCT. And between him, the police commissioner, the head of security agencies,… DSS is an intelligence agency. So the security needs to know what is going on on the ground.”
While lamenting the worsening insecurity in the FCT, Mrs Kingibe said she was told that the issues of insecurity were exaggerated when she raised concerns.
“I remember a few months ago, I drew the attention of the minister [Nyesom Wik]—when he came for appropriation—to the fact that security is a priority. And I have been saying that for a long time. It started off with the people in Mpape being unable to sleep.
“Some months ago, the girl that was thrown out of a taxi from ‘One Chance’ eventually died.
“All these things, I drew his attention to, but nothing was done until it got to the point where we are now.
“And I must commend the security agencies for doing something when we started to scream. But the truth is, a little bit earlier, I tried to draw their attention, and I was told that it was exaggerated, and I said it couldn’t be because of what I was telling them, which I did not get from social media. I got it from my constituents. But I’m glad that everybody now seems to be on the same page.
“They’re trying to take it seriously, but a lot more needs to be done. Catching the kidnappers is just the symptom. We need to get to the root cause of what is causing all of this insecurity,” the lawmaker said.
She also called for the optimisation of security forces, noting that most police personnel had been deployed to protect VIPs.
“We need more community policing. And as I said, we need more security within the usual checkpoints; they dismantle by 10 p.m.; the checkpoints are gone.
“We need them (security) within the community who can give information secretly because a lot of them know some of them, but it is not happening in the community.
“Our problems are not laws but the implementation. How do you find it difficult to get N20,000 from the bank, but you were able to give N10 million in cash? So how do they get the money? There must be strict financial control—stricter,” she said.
Mrs Kingibe added that elected officials of the FCT had not enjoyed cordial relationships with Mr Wike.
