No fewer than seven members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Senate today, participated in the screening of the Service Chiefs recently appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan, in defiance of their political party’s directive.
The leadership of the APC had through a communique read by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, last week directed their members in the National Assembly to block the passage of the budget, and the screening of new service chiefs and ministers.
The APC senators included Akin Odunsi (APC-Ogun), Babafemi Ojudu (APC-Ekiti), Sani Saleh (APC-Kaduna), Atai Aidoko (APC-Kogi), Kabiru Marafa (APC-Zamfara) Robert Boroffice (APC-Ondo), among others.
The Senate Joint Committee on Defence and Army, Navy and Air Force challenged the newly appointed service chiefs to effectively tackle insurgency and oil theft in the country.
The chairman of the joint committee, Sen. George Sekibo gave the charge at the commencement of the screening of the service chiefs on Monday in Abuja.
Sekibo noted that potent strategies must be undertaken by the newly appointed service chiefs to tackle kidnapping, pipeline vandalism and other security challenges in various parts of the nation.
He said the entire Senate was determined to support any effort geared towards the protection of citizens by eliminating all forms of lawlessness and threat to national security.
According to him, the screening exercise was in accordance with the provision of the Constitution which mandates the National Assembly to confirm the service chiefs before they are decorated by the President.
“Our country is going through some major challenges including among others, insurgency in the North East, oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the South South and kidnapping in the South East and other parts of the country.
“If the required attention is not given to these challenges, they are capable of disintegrating our country or putting our nation’s unity in question.
“It is our belief that those of you who are presenting yourself for screening are prepared to work towards achieving tranquility in the North East.
“You have to eliminate oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the South South, stop kidnapping in the South East and other areas of the country,” he said.
Sekibo added that the screening exercise was to assess the competence of the service chiefs in strategic military operations and their proficiency to combat the prevailing nation security challenges.
He noted that the screening was the first to be carried out by the Senate since the return of Nigeria to civil rule despite the fact that there was a
provision for it in Sections 217 to 219 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
He added that past administrations in the country had not been sending names of service chiefs for confirmation despite that the National Assembly enacted Armed Forces Act 2004, which made it mandatory for the federal lawmakers to confirm the appointment of service chiefs.
Sekibo said, “The screening exercise today therefore is in fulfillment of the
provisions of the constitution and the Armed Forces Act 2004 (Cap A.20 of the
laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) which has been flouted since it was
enacted.
“This exercise we are performing today would satisfy the provisions of the constitution and law, and completely put our Armed Forces under our
democratic norms.” (187)
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