North East Senators approve emergency rule extension

                              

Senators from the North East on Tuesday acceded to President Goodluck Jonathan’s request for extension of emergency rule in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe but said it was with “a heavy heart”. The senators said their agreeing to the extension was on the basis that certain conditions articulated by them must be considered. Some of the conditions include a monthly briefing of the senate by service chiefs, proper arming of soldiers and that a supplementary budget be submitted to meet financial requirements to combat insurgency among others. Speaking to newsmen, Sen. Ma’aji Lawan ( APC-Borno) said the senators from the affected states approved the extension “with a lot of grief. We from the affected states welcome this resolution but with a very heart.

“We have been killed, ravaged, and are going through pain and anguish and criminality that has never been imagined anywhere. We know that it is difficult to ask an army to go and fight a war without giving them the tools. They asked us and now we have given them the tools to go and work. “We want the president also to know that our people in the affected states are going through pain and that he should respect every single one of that resolution to protect the lives of our people and turn things around.” Lawan said that the envisaged Marshall  plan and envisaged immediate intervention fund were  the minimum immediate measures that the states were waiting to see implemented. “We want the military up and doing  a lot more than they are for which we ask the president to give us a supplementary budget so that we will provide the funds for whatever is needed for them to prosecute that war.” According to him, “this madness has come full circle and must be stopped.” Also speaking to newsmen, Sen. Ahmed Lawan (APC-Yobe) lamented that  Yobe state government had so far spent over N9 billion on the armed forces. He said that although the armed forces needed to be properly funded to effectively fight insurgency, it should be the responsibility of the federal government and not of the state government . “Yobe has spent over N9 billion as at today on funding the operations of our armed forces and we believe that our armed forces need to be properly funded, motivated and properly kitted. He said that the condition that the president should prepare and submit a supplementary budget would take care of the funding. Lawan also said it would help to create economic benefits to the youths who were the recruit base for Boko Haram. “We thank God for giving us the courage and wisdom to negotiate the passage of the request of the president to extend the emergency rule. I want to say that it was a product of over four hours of discussion with the senate president and senators from the affected states and we agreed on certain conditions.” He also expressed optimism that the president, having gotten the extension he sought, would also implement the conditions attached to it to the letter. “We expect the president to react positively. Now that he has gotten what he wanted even though not exactly the way he wanted it but that is politics, that is life. “I trust that the president will implement in total what we have passed in the senate even though we have to go through harmonization with the House of Representatives. What we passed is a product of strong and prolonged negotiation and I want to thank our colleagues for standing with us and we think these conditions will bring some succor to our people. The lawmaker added that with constant briefing from the service chiefs, the senate would ascertain if the extension was working and if not, it would immediately call for its revocation. “One of our other conditions is having to review the implementation of the state of emergency on a monthly basis and if we are satisfied in the first two or three months we could say it is okay. If, however, it is not implemented properly, we could call for revocation that is to stop the implementation of the state of emergency. Sen. Bello Tukur ( PDP-Adamawa) also told newsmen that he was hopeful that with the extension approved, the federal government would bring the war to an end. ”Giving the fact that we have all tried to meet their expectation,  we hope that they will do all that it takes for them to finish this once and for all. “I believe the information that we got from the security services is genuine and we hope it will facilitate the conclusion of the war.” The senators had earlier unanimously voted in favour of  extending the emergency rule in plenary after extensive consultation and discussions  which lasted for over four hours.