A member of the House of Representatives, Rotimi Agunsoye, on Tuesday, lamented the inability of the government to protect Nigerians.
Mr Agunsoye, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), declared that “we have failed woefully in all these” while reacting to a motion on the attack against Igangan, a town in Oyo State, Premium Times reports.
Igangan was attacked in the early hours of Sunday as gunmen suspected to be herdsmen set houses ablaze, with about 11 persons killed.
The lawmaker, who represents Kosofe Federal Constituency of Lagos State, lamented that people were being killed across the country.
“Dear colleagues, the most hated person in the world is the person that speaks the truth and people would not want to listen to the truth because they do not want their illusion destroyed.
“Mr Speaker, dear colleagues, I think enough is enough. We need to address the main issue now. Where are we? The role of government in governance is to protect the lives and property of the people and to provide welfare for the people.
“Mr speaker, we have failed woefully in all this. My colleague Sununu said over 70 people were killed. My dear colleague from Oyo State said over 50 people were killed. Somebody from Imo said their people are being killed. Go to the north-east, north-central, south-east, south-west, north-west, south-south — our people are being killed. What are we doing in government?
“It is important we address this, Mr Speaker. Is it the time when we have fighter jets moving here and there then we would address this issue? Something has to be done Mr speaker,” Mr Agunsoye said.
Meanwhile, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, had earlier in his speech to the House, raised concerns on the growing insecurity across the country.
He said the House will soon commence debates on some bills on security.
According to him, the bills were products of the security summit the special committee on security organised some weeks ago.
He said, “Two weeks ago, the House of Representatives hosted a Special Summit on National Security to harness the views of citizens and stakeholders, experts from within and outside, to define a new strategy for combating the different manifestations of insecurity in our country.
“The contributions we received from across the country and the recommendations made therein have already begun to inform legislative action in the House of Representatives.
“Tomorrow, the House will begin consideration of a slate of bills intended to reform our national security statutory framework. We are seeking through legislation to address the issues of overlapping mandates resulting in inter-agency rivalry and lack of cooperation amongst the security agencies.
“We are seeking to make community policing operational so that communities and the police can work together to protect our people across the country.”
He said the bill intends to change the “way the Armed Forces conduct operations so that the three arms of our military can work more effectively together to overcome shared challenges.”
Mr Gbajabiamila also said the final report of the summit and legislative recommendations would be sent to President Muhammadu Buhari.
“We intend to change the way the Armed Forces conduct operations so that the three arms of our military can work more effectively together to overcome shared challenges. And we want to change the nature of interactions between the civilian population and the military so that the conflicts that breed resentment and undermine national security can be eliminated once and forevermore.
“These Bills are only the first of the legislative interventions relating to national security that we will be considering. Also, the final report of the Summit, including the recommendations for legislative action will shortly be presented to the President…”