Insecurity: Senate to review performance agreement military end of 2024

By Samuel Vincent

The Senate has revealed its readiness to evaluate progress made on the security performance agreement it had with security agencies.

Senator Garba Maidoki, Senator representing Kebbi South gave the hint in an exclusive interview with some members of the National Assembly News Media Forum in Abuja on Wednesday.

Commenting on his earlier claim, wherein he alleged that, the Nigeria Army received a monthly grant of 500 million naira from Kebbi State Government. Regrettably however, he said despite this grant, insecurity has abetted.

Senator Maidoki narrated how 12 of his constituents were helplessly murdered by bandits without intervention from the military.

He recounted how those murdered were among the concerned citizens who came to him to complain about the activities of bandits in their communities. According to Senator Maidoki, he advised the complainants to report their concerns to the State Governor who is constitutionally empowered to address those complaints. Regrettably, despite their complaints, 12 amongst the concerned citizens were murdered on their farm.

The Kebbi senator decried why security agencies will have to wait for grants from the state government, despite having monies voted for their assigned duties.

“I was asking the Senate, where is the money we passed for the Army to do their job, what is it for? The Army now has to wait until the State Governor gives them grants before they do their job?”

He also observed that they had an agreement with security agencies on the improvement of security. Their agreement necessitated the improvement in the budgetary allocation on security, however, very little improvement is being witnessed.

Worried over the spat of persistent insecurity, Senator Maidoki is reminding security chiefs of their agreement and the timeline for reviewing the key performance indicators (KIP).

He said the review outcome will be communicated to Nigerians and President Bola Tinubu for action.

“We have a memorandum of understanding with the Nigeria Security Chiefs. What they are going to deliver at the end of this year. We are waiting to see that the money we give them, they have delivered on their promise.

If they didn’t, we will tell The President that we had agreement, we have the KIPs together with them. At the end of this year, we are going to check the KIPs. And we will tell Nigerians where they stand on those KIPs,” he said.

Recalled that the Senate had held an over 10 hours closed-door meeting with security chiefs in February of 2024. In that meeting, agreements were reached on the improvement of the security across the country.