…Sends 20-member ad hoc committee to Maiduguri
SAN FRANCISCO, January 28, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives Tuesday called on the National Security Adviser (NSA), Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff and the Inspector-General of Police to properly investigate last Sunday’s attacks on innocent citizens by militants believed to be Boko Haram.
The House also constituted a 20- member ad hoc committee to conduct an on the spot visit to the communities affected by the attacks with the view to identifying the immediate and remote causes of the dastardly act.
The decision to constitute an ad hoc committee followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Hon. Kaka Kyari Gujbawu from Borno who expressed concern that the bomb attacks came after nine months of relative peace in Maiduguri and consumed “about 50 innocent souls and inflicted mortal injury on nearly 100 persons.”
In his lead debate, Gujbawu said he was aware that “the justifiable fear of the people that the explosion of January 14 is not unconnected with the preceding rancorous political events of two days that culminated in the bomb blast.” He added that “the wicked event generated anger, leading to the razing down of two central offices belonging to same political party.”
According to him, many insurgents attacks in the past went without any proper investigation, which “could portend a serious danger to the successful execution of the 2015 elections.”
Before constituting the team, the House called on the service chiefs to “set up a committee that will search their light beyond the ongoing insurgency to investigate the causes of the wanton destruction to lives and properties.”
The ad hoc committee is headed by the chief whip, Hon. Mohammed Ishaku Bawa. Members of the committee, which is to turn in its report within one week, include Hon. Linus Okorie (PDP, Ebonyi), Hon. Idris Ahmed Wase (PDP, Plateau), Hon. Bashir Adamu (PDP, Jigawa), Hon. Yakubu Dogara (APC, Bauchi), Hon. Andrew Uchendu (APC, Rivers) and Hon. Rotimi Mikhail (APC, Osun).
Others are Hon. Stella Dorgu (PDP, Bayelsa), Hon. Binta Bello Maigari (PDP, Gombe) and Hon. Nkoyo Toyo (PDP, Cross River).
Also on the team are all members of the House from Borno State made up Hon. Abdul Mshelia, Abdulrahman Terah, Muktar Betara Aliyu, Muhmud Lawan Maina and Peter Biye Gumtha. The rest are Mohammed Ngamdu, Mohammed Monguno, Isa Lawan, Kaka Kyari Gudjubawu and Ka’amuna Khadi.
The House also urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) “to immediately deploy its men and materials to alleviate the sufferings of hundreds of innocent victims so affected.”
Similarly, the House on Tuesday called on NEMA to urgently initiate palliative measures by sending relief materials to victims of the Port Harcourt fire disaster.
This followed the adoption of a motion on the need to assist the victims of the fire disaster moved by Hon. Blessing Nsiegbe.
By Saint Mugaga, Abuja
