President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday held a closed-door meeting with the President of Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara at his official residence, Presidential Villa Abuja.
The meeting which was said to be as a result of the recent killings by suspected herdsmen of over 86 people in Plateau State took place early in the morning before the weekly Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting at the Council Chamber of the State House.
This is as there was indication that the President may reorganize the security apparatus in the country to curtail the reckless and incessant killings of citizens.
Speaking after the meeting, the Senate President, Dr. Saraki said they met with the President to get first hand information from him after he visited Plateau State on Tuesday.
He said, “We met with the president to, first of all, commiserate with him and get a briefing from him. Part of the briefing he explained how steps are being taken to forestall reoccurrence and restore sanity because this is a great concern to him and to us also.
“To see what can be done with NEMA and security agencies, we will all work towards it, nobody is happy with it and we will all come together to ensure that we restore sanity.
“We commiserate with all families, it is our own intention to also go and pay our own condolence visit to the people of Plateau.
“Our general appeal at the end of the day is that we all live together in peace and harmony and we will continue to do our best to see that this kind of thing does not happen again.”
On his part, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dogara said that the went to commiserate with the President on the killings in Plateau State and to know measures put in place to forestall further occurrence.
He also said that the President briefed them on efforts so far made and the reorganization plans to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
Dogara said, “We are here to condole with Mr. President, the government and people of Plateau state over this very unfortunate incident.
“He has briefed us on what he saw firsthand when he visited Plateau yesterday and measures he is putting in place to ensure that we do not have a relapse or a recurrence.
“These are very sober moments for all of us in a situation where people in hundreds are continued to be killed and we can no longer tolerate this kind of situation as a government.
“Whatever it is we must not lose the fight against violence because we can’t lose that fight and still keep our civilization.
“If you go to the northeast you can see the level of devastation caused by Boko Haram everything resembling progress from schools to hospitals to government institutions, everything has been pulled down. And we don’t want a replication of this all over the country.
Reorganization plan
“The president has taken enough steps, these are security issues, there are not matters that you can discuss but he has told us what he is doing, the reorganization that he plans to put in place to ensure that this don’t happen.
“My advise to our people not just Plateau State, Benue, Zamfara, Taraba virtually some communities faced with this situation especially in the north, I think the issue of securing our communities, living in peace must be taken as a project, is something each and everyone of us must invest in.
“Whether as traditional rulers, as community leaders, councilors, chairmen, all strata of society must invest in peacebuilding. That is is the only way we can live in a secure community and ensure that we progress as a country.”
