A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and immediate past chairman, House committee on internal security, Hon. Aminu Sani Jaji, has called on National Assembly to budget a special fund for the security agencies to acquire sophisticated weapons.
Jaji said if the executive and the legislature could agree on such special fund for the security agencies to acquire needed weapons insecurity will end within three months.
Speaking with newsmen Wednesday in Abuja, Jaji a governorship aspirant in Zamfara state said the only difference between Nigerian security agencies and foreign mercenaries is the possession of sophisticated weapons.
Jaji said: “The National Assembly has alot to do, in tackling this issue of insecurity. If you look at the budget of all the security agencies in Nigeria, it is too small to tackle the current security challenges. So the National Assembly has to do something.
“They don’t have to rely on the budget the executive submitted to them regarding the security agencies. They should think and listen to the security agencies and invite them, what is your need? From there, if it is established that the security agencies were given enough funding, then the National Assembly will continue with their oversight function to know how the money was spent or utilised.
“When I was the chairman, I think there was a time money was budgeted to some of the security agencies but they were able to access only 60 percent of that money.
“Even if they get the 100 percent, it will not take them anywhere and then they were getting less than 100 percent or 60 percent. So I think the National Assembly need to look at this issue holistically. For me, I believe there are strategies which if the executive and the National Assembly put in place, the issue of insecurity will be resolved and Nigerians will start seen the result maybe, from three to six months, if they put it in place.
“Let the executive and the legislature come together and provide a special fund. Maybe the executive should set up a committee on procurement; the committee that will not compromise whatsoever, and provide whatever they are asked to provide.
“The National Assembly and the executive should work together to provide a special fund, get the equipment, I think in three or four months some of the equipment will be ready and then they will see how they will fight this insecurity to finish. But for now, what we can do within our power is to pray.”
When asked whether the security agencies were overwhelmed, the APC chieftain said: “they are overwhelmed because they don’t have sophisticated equipment. If they have it, between three and six months, it would be resolved. People were talking about mercenaries because they have the equipment that we don’t have; they are too sophisticated. If we have it, that means our security agencies will finish them in no time.”
Speaking on the nationwide distribution on palliative by his group, Hon. Jaji said there were about 510 trucks of food items to be shared across the country.
“We decided to embark on humanitarian services which we are targeting to cover all the 36 states of the federation including Abuja, to share parliatives. That is why last two weeks we were in Zamfara, this week, we were in Borno, that is Maiduguri, where we shared palliatives to IDPs.
“We targeted 60 to 100 thousand people in Borno to benefit from the gesture. We did the same thing in Kebbi, as well as Kano. So we are trying to make sure that before the week rounds off, at least, we would have covered 20 states. The exercise is targeted at telling the people that President Muhammadu Buhari is a platform and people that are saying that after President Buhari, there will be no APC, I want to say President Muhammadu Buhari is a platform, if not because of our Constitution, he can even contest election without a political party.
“We have more than 510 trucks of food items that we are going to share across the country. So being made the national coordinator of the programme, we are going round with some of the national excos and we have coordinators in the 36 states including Abuja, and our target is to ensure that the less privileged, IDPs, orphans, at least benefitted from the gesture.”
