Kehinde Akintola, Author at Tribune Online

Barring last-minute changes the report of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill will be laid on the floor of the House on Wednesday. The Speaker, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila who disclosed this during the plenary, however, noted that the report will be considered on Thursday, 15, July 2021. Meanwhile, the House in the report on the Security Summit presented to President Muhammadu Buhari called on Federal Government to establish Local Security Committees in all 774 Local Government Areas across the Federation. As contained in the report presented to President Muhammadu Buhari, the Committee which will comprise of Traditional Rulers, Religious institutions, and local opinion leaders, should be managed by the NPF as part of its Community Policing mandate. The lawmakers also called for the establishment and strengthening of a National Crisis Centre (NCC) within the Nigerian Police. According to the report, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) will be the national coordinating centre for all civil security response actions and monitoring of resolutions of such with monthly reporting on all incidents. It will also be the central place for any Nigerian to report major security incidents. As part of efforts aimed at ending the herder-farmer crisis which has claimed hundreds of lives and destruction of property and farms in various parts of the country, the House called for the “use and development of grazing reserves and ranching should be pursued in lower population areas. Pilot schemes should commence immediately in all States that are positively disposed to it.” The lawmakers also urged Federal Government to The use and development of grazing reserves and ranching should be pursued in lower population areas. Pilot schemes should commence immediately in all states that are positively disposed to it. The lawmakers also called for the establishment of an interventionist agency (or add to the role of an existing Agency) to identify and provide little investment and sustenance opportunities to ex-convicts, jobless youths, discharged but indigents military and paramilitary personnel, among others; it is being alleged that most of the violent crimes are committed by these classes of citizens. Maintain a central database of convicted persons, persons who have served out their terms, and persons in prisons and awaiting trial; The House also canvassed for the establishment of a national transitional justice framework, stressing that the “absence of a unifying Transitional justice framework remains a challenge in addressing Nigeria’s intractable conflicts. Existing Transitional Justice frameworks e.g., designed to address the Niger- Delta or the Boko Haram insurgency, will require review, towards applying them to the many victims of the other security challenges.” The lawmakers also urged the present administration to resolve legislatively, the crisis of overlapping mandates amongst the various security-related agencies. According to the proposed 19 recommendations, the House urged Federal Government to “instruct the immediate enhanced training for the Police Mobile Unit to improve their capacity to deal with insecurity. A special team of 40,000 Police Mobile Unite officers should undergo this special training. 1,000 should then be deployed to every state for immediate operations. North East, South West, South East can receive the officers remaining out of the 40,000.” They also called for the creation of a new team under the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to train and work with the guards of Nigeria’s forest. This unit will collaborate with the current Forest Guards who will remain under the control of States. The House also stressed the need to encourage the Intelligence Agencies (working with the National Security Adviser and the Chief of Defence Staff) to initiate a screening and vetting program of all frontline officers of the Nigerian military to fish out moles and double-agents who have so far compromised most efforts at combating insecurity and win the war against insurgents and terrorists. “Strategically, the Executive should initiate a Presidential Police Reform initiative that will be resident in one central place within the Presidency. Also, an operational specialised unit should be established within the NPF to champion and drive all the change initiatives (based on a Presidential Policing Reform Roadmap) from within the institution. “Direct the use of the Nigerian Police Trust Fund to procure some of the immediate equipment need by the rank-and-file police officers in Nigeria. This intervention will include the procurement of modern critical equipment for the Nigeria Police Force as specified by the leadership of the NPF. “Give immediate consideration to the use of Private Defence Contractors for targeted security operations to combat insurgency and terrorism especially. The House also urged the Executive to use all means at its disposal (while Legislation is pending), to require the creation of a protocol that will compel intelligence (as a matter of necessity) sharing amongst all security agencies. The House also called on Mr President to initiate an Executive Order on the “Civilianisation program in all our security agencies. This should compel the agencies to use civilian staff to perform most back-office and non-tactical duties. This initiative will free up thousands of security personnel for frontline duties immediately. “Encourage and resource the National Orientation Agency and the Federal Ministry of Information to begin a structured strategic Communication and orientation campaign using all available media channels and platforms to promote peaceful coexistence and national unity. They also stressed the need for the deployment of Early Warning Systems nationwide including installation of CCTV cameras and other surveillance, satellite and electronic equipment along major highways, public places, and major cities and our borders.” The House also stressed the need to strengthen the “judicial and law enforcement administration through a Digitisation initiative for the judiciary. This will speed up the administration of Justice and reduce corruption. Swift administration of justice will help reduce causes of disaffection which feeds into insecurity. “Strengthen and instruct widespread use of the centralized national criminal database by the NPF and mandate access for other security agencies, providing resources to ensure this can be done. This should also include the modernization of the national fingerprint database. “The NSA in collaboration with civil security agencies should identify, map, and arrest cult group leaders, violent agitators, and networks of criminal groups at tertiary education level as well as society at large. “The nation’s dependence on the import of basic security requirements should be reduced by enhancing the existing military production facilities and private companies across the country for immediate supply of needed security equipment.” While noting that poverty remains a major driver for all the insecurity issues currently prevalent across the nation, the lawmakers called for deliberate action towards the provision of “infrastructure and a new jobs’ creation drive and initiative by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Executive is also urged to consider doing even more by declaring a state of emergency on job creation-considering the high rate of unemployment.” The lawmakers also underscored the need for Nigeria to take major steps to control the flow of illegal arms into the country. “The first step must strengthen the control of our borders to detect and seize any illegal shipment of arms into the country, and arrest and prosecute any person associated with the illegal flow of arms into the country. “In the next step, Nigeria should reach out to overseas arms dealers to enlist their cooperation against the sales of arms to non-state actors. “A third step should be a major diplomatic initiative with the governments of countries known to have companies engaged in selling arms to non-state actors. 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