Senate Rejects Zamfara's Plan To Arm Vigilantees

Everybody is slowly warming to the consensus that there are way too many illegal weapons inthe country. To this end, the Senate on Thursday, soundly rejected plans by Zamfara Governor Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar to arm local state vigilante groups. On the other hand, the Senate requested that President Goodluck Jonathan deploy more security personnel to Zamfara and other statesburdened by a rising upsurge in insecurity . Zamfara in particular, has been rocked by recent deadly attacks and killings by the now infamous ‘unknown gunmen’. Concerning Governor Yari’s plan, it was reported that rifles which had been purchasedby the state government, were in the custody of security agents in the state awaiting approval for disbursement. This was contained in a report that was presented by the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Mohammed Shaaba Lafiagi (Kwara/PDP) at Thursday’s plenary. Governor Yari insists that the arms were for self-defence purposes only. The majority of senators however did not buy the idea. To them, a mass proliferation of weapons under the guise of arming vigilantes will have serioussecurity repercussions. “Zamfara and other states with peculiar security challenges will better address their security problems by requesting for additional security personnel and other assistance rather than setting up armed groups that may soon go out of control,” Basheer Garba Mohammed (Kano/PDP) stated at the plenary while leading the debate on the Zamfara motion which he co-sponsored with 50 others. Also, Senate Deputy Leader, Abdul Ningi (Bauchi/PDP) suggested that a panel be set up to establish where the Zamfara governor got the authority to effect the weapons purchase. As is the habit these days in our legislature, there was a moment of real drama during the plenary. As the motion was being debated, Ali Ndume (Borno South/PDP) made a startling comment to the chagrin of many, that about half of the 109 senators in the Senate own guns. Visibly uncomfortable with the statement, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who was the presiding officer, quickly asked Ndume to retract the statement, saying he could not substantiate that claim. According to him, Ndume has not searched thehouse of any senator to ascertain if the senators own any arms. Drama or no drama, these are surely testy times for the nation.