What Saraki, Dogara Told Buhari

Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker House of Reps, Yakubu Dogara on Wednesday met with President Muhammadu Buhari over the violence in Plateau in which over 135 people according to government’s estimates were killed though villagers put the number at over 300.

At the meeting which held at the Presidential Villa, both leaders of the National Assembly expressed concern over the escalating violence and need to halt the killings.

Speaker Dogara in a statement disclosed what they told Buhari.

“We requested for the meeting in order to hear from the president the steps and measures he is taken to end the orgy of killings and violence not only on the Plateau but in other parts of the country,” Dogara said.

“The President briefed us on what he saw firsthand when he visited Plateau state on Tuesday and the measures he is putting in place to forestall recurrence.

“The President has taken enough steps and told us what he is doing especially the reorganisation that he plans to put in place to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

“We also used the opportunity to advise the President on other measures and actions that will help bring lasting peace in our country in accordance with the resolutions passed at the joint emergency closed-door session of the National Assembly held some weeks ago.

“These are very sober moments for all us. In a situation where people, in hundreds continued to be killed, we can no longer tolerate this kind of situation as a government.

“We call on all relevant government agencies to quickly provide emergency relief services to people in the affected areas.

“The House of Representatives and indeed the National Assembly will continue to work towards providing all necessary legislative backing to the security agencies more especially funding needed to reform and equip our armed forces to tackle the prevailing security challenges confronting us as a nation.

“I am also restating my earlier call for a total reform and overhaul of our internal security architecture which has failed to address the spate of insecurity in the land.

“I want to seize this opportunity to once again offer our condolences to families of victims of violence in Zamfara, Benue, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa, Kaduna Nasarawa, Borno, Yobe and other places and urge our citizens to embrace peace without which there can be no meaningful development.”

Signed

Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara

Speaker