Lawmaker Tells Jonathan What To Do About Troubled States

A lawmaker representing Lagos in the House of Representatives, Babatunde Adewale has told President Goodluck Jonathan what to do about the three troubled states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

NAN reported on Wednesday that the lawmaker, who is a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) advised President Jonathan to deploy more troops to states affected by insurgency.

Speaking in Abuja, he asserted that it was not conducive for the house members to discuss the extension of the state of emergency in the three troubled states but insisted that there is a provision in the Armed Forces Act that gives the president power to deploy army to troubled regions.

“The government should allow other arms of government to perform their duties. Let him deploy the army to these places and continue the operations pending the time that insurgency will come down. All of us have to be patriotic; we have suffered for this democracy and we should nurture it, we should allow it to work,” Adewale said.

The honorable advised that the Nigerian military should continue its offensive until the house resumes.

It would be recalled that Rep. Mohammed Zakari, Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, had earlier hinted that the House had on November 20, 2014 rejected President Jonathan’s request to extend the emergency rule in the aforementioned states.

He said the House of Representatives decided that the Federal Government should rely on the provisions of the constitution to deploy military operatives to continue fighting the terrorists group Boko Haram in the troubled states.

“We have not extended the emergency rule rather, we have asked the president to rely on Section 8 of the Armed Forces Act which empowers him to deploy the military to troubled spots of the country,” Zakari said.

Meanwhile, following the expiration of emergency rule in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states, the Senate on Tuesday summoned service chiefs to discuss the extension of emergency rule in the three Northeastern states.

It would be recalled that the police on Thursday, November 20, 2014, took over the National Assembly ahead of the House of Reps plenary aimed at discussing emergency rule extension in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states.

It was earlier reported that the President asked the Assembly for the third time to extend the emergency rule in the three states mostly affected by the Boko Haram insurgency, a development that did not go well with some of the Senators, especially those from the North.