…. Adjourns till April 25
The Senate has rejected an interim report presented by the ad-hoc committee it set up to investigate the causes of farmers/herders clashes in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country.
This comes as the upper legislative chamber has adjourned till April 25, 2017.
Presenting the report at plenary, Chairman of the committee, Kabiru Gaya called on the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai to publish previous white paper reports on Southern Kaduna crisis.
He also alleged that 70 percent of police officers posted to Southern Kaduna, are indigenes of the place, a development he condemned and called on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to correct the imbalance.
However, the report was unanimously rejected by lawmakers.
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, urged his colleagues to reject the report and insist that the committee is mandated to go back and do a thorough job and come up with clear recommendations.
Ekweremadu argued that the report failed to address the salient issues which the committee was mandated to address.
For instance, he said the panel failed to address the issue of arms proliferation in the country, which he said are sometimes tied to herdsmen.
Ekweremadu also argued that since previous reports by various commissions of enquiry have not been implemented, perpetrators of the killings feel more emboldened to continue the killings.
Ekweremadu said: “I consider this issue to be very serious. We must accord it the seriousness it deserves. The committee has confirmed that the killings happened. The recommendations need to reflect more on the seriousness of this matter.
“I understand clearly that the chairman of the committee needs more time to do more work to show the whole world that this Senate is serious about this matter. Looking at the recommendations, they do not reflect the seriousness of the matter like I said. Suggesting that we use money from the Service Wide Vote to handle this matter shows that we do not understand the relevance of that fund.
“Today, we are talking about arms proliferation. We have a whistle blowing policy. We need to direct it more on those keeping those arms. We were told that the Nigerian Customs Service intercepted arms. Till this day, we have not been told who imported the arms.
“We cannot sit back and allow our women and children to be killed everyday. Our people are being killed in Enugu, Kaduna, Zamfara and in other parts of the country. This matter is serious enough for the committee to go back and do more work.”
His submission was supported by Barnabas Gemade who also faulted the interim report.
Gemade particularly faulted the recommendation that special grazing routes be created for herdsmen, while neglecting the plight of farmers.
Gemade said: “Even though this is an interim report, it is obvious that we ought to have brought this report to a level where we will establish the seriousness of the issue. I believe we have to look at all the issues. The suggestion about setting up grazing routes must be looked at.
“We must come to a point where we have to agree on what is good for everyone. Today, we need to look at those affected by this thing. In Europe, you do not need a visa to move from one country to another. But still, there is still strict movement of people.
“But here, there is no restriction at all. When we talk about these things, people think that the normads are targeted. That is not the issue. The issue is that, we must track genuine normads of this country who are doing business. We need to separate them from criminals. This committee has an enormous work to do. It should visit all the locations affected. The killings are still going on and they have not stopped.”
Ruling on the suggestions, Saraki urged the committee to accommodate all the issues raised and come up a clean report.
Saraki, had in early January, shortly after the Senate resumed from its Christmas break, set up an eight-man committee, following a motion sponsored by Danjuma La’ah.
La’ah, had while moving the motion, noted that since 2011, various communities in Southern Kaduna Senatorial District of Kaduna State have been consistently attacked by herdsmen, resulting in deaths, injuries, loss of properties and displacement of the communities.
Meanwhile, the Senate has embarked on Easter break and will resume on April 25, 2017.
