President Goodluck Jonathan is set to seek the approval of the National Assembly for the extension of state of emergency rule in three North East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
This was the decision of the National Defence Council after its meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday presided over by the president.
It is expected that the extension of the emergency rule would not lead to the suspension of democratic structures in the states as the governors of the three states and the Houses of Assembly would still function and perform their constitutional roles.
The emergency rule which is currently running in the three states would expire on Thursday, November 20.
At the end of the council meeting which lasted for about two hours, the service chiefs declined to speak to journalists on the outcome of the meeting.
However, Bello Adoke (SAN), the attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, told journalists that the meeting was held to review the state of emergency declared in the three states.
“We just reviewed the state of emergency declared in three states and the government will be requesting the National Assembly to grant extension of the emergency rule”, he said.
When asked how soon the request would be made to the National Assembly in view of the fact that the current emergency rule ends on Thursday, the attorney general said the request would be made immediately to the National Assembly.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are presently not in session.
If the request is granted, it would be the third time Jonathan would be extending state of emergency in the three states which has been under attack by the Boko Haram sect. The sect’s attacks have led to loss of lives and destruction of valuable properties.
Jonathan had on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 first declared state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states while it has been extended twice, first in November 2013 and May, this year.
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While declaring the state of emergency in a broadcast to the nation in May 2013, Jonathan said the action was an attempt to check the increasingly violent attacks by the insurgents, saying the level of violence called for extraordinary measures.
In attendance at Monday’s meeting were all the service chiefs, including chief of defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh; chief of army staff, Lieutenant-General Kenneth Minimah; chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin and chief of air staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu.
Also at the meeting were the minister of defence, Aliyu Gusau; inspector general of police, Suleiman Abba, and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd).
