The Senate has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to declare total war on the Boko Haram sect by deploying all resources and efforts to bring the insurgency in the North east to an end.
The Senate, which resumed from eight-week recess on Tuesday, expressed serious concerns that Boko Haram insurgents have overrun a number of communities in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States, and pushed through a resolution that the president should declare a total war on insurgency, which they said is the only way to put a lasting end to the Boko Haram threat.
The Senators began an extensive debate on the activities of the fundamentalist sect after Senate Leader; Victor Ndoma-Egba, moved the motion on “Threat to National Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity of Nigeria by Insurgents” and jointly supported by 107 senators.
Ndoma – Egba in his motion noted that the security situation in the North east continues to deteriorate despite the declaration of state of emergency in the affected states.
He further said the sect had launched a full scale war against the nation when it began the act of kidnapping, killing of people, destruction of properties, among others.
Senate President David Mark declared in his opening remark said that with this scale of warfare, the Nigerian state must first demonstrate her strength, confront and defeat the insurgents before resorting to dialogue, adding that it was not time for trading blame but for a united front against the insurgents.
“There is no difference between what Boko Haram is doing against Nigeria and what an enemy country waging war against Nigeria would have done,” Mark stated.
“As a responsible government, we will not tolerate this subversion of our sovereignty. It is reprehensible and totally unacceptable. The life of every Nigerian is very important to us and must be held sacrosanct. Total security is sine qua non to our existence,” he said further.
The motion was unanimously passed with the Senate resolving to send a delegation to President Goodluck Jonathan on the matter.