In a swift action to the gruesome killings of over 100 people on Christmas eve attack in Plateau State, the Nigerian Senate on Saturday summoned the heads of security agencies for questioning.
The Informant247 reports that no fewer than 145 persons were killed in bandits’ attacks on 23 villages in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi local government areas of Plateau State, while hundreds of people were injured and property destroyed from Saturday night to the early hours of Monday.
The Senate said that the coordinated nature of the marauding bandits carried out the massacre showed that there was a failure of security intelligence.
The Red Chamber, following a motion by Senator Diket Plang (APC, Plateau) during Saturday’s plenary, invited the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Director-General of State Security Services, National Security Adviser, Director General of Nigeria Intelligence Agency and Inspector General of Police over the killings.
The security chiefs are to brief the Senate on the gruesome killings in Plateau State to enable the parliament to take further action.
Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi), who chairs the Northern Senators’ Forum, described the attack as unprecedented, adding that his findings after spending 72 hours in Plateau and meeting with the state’s governor, showed the attackers, in collaboration with the locals, carried out the attacks in a well-coordinated manner.
He said the bandits, numbering about 400, operated freely without hindrance, alleging that the security agents failed to act on the prior information before the attack.
Simon Lalong, a former Plateau State governor, faulted the claims of the military that the terrain was difficult to access and the attacked communities were too distant from military formations while expressing disappointment that despite the various military operations, including Operation Safe Haven, keeping peace in the state, innocent lives are being lost in a gruesome manner.