We will vote against it’ – Northern senators oppose Jonathan’s emergency rule extension

The Emergency Rule extension proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday may eventually meet a brickwall going by the reaction of Northern House of Assembly members.
Jonathan wrote to the National Assembly proposing a six months extension of the emergency rule in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states after incessant attacks were recorded in the states by armed men suspected to be members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect.


It, however, appears that Northern senators have elected to oppose the extension after meeting behind closed-doors for about three hours yesterday. The Senators argued that emergency rule extension is not the best way to tackle the menace of Boko Haram in the affected states.
The Chairman of the Northern Senators Umaru Dahiru told  journalists after the meeting that  the group had set up a committee to meet with the governments of the affected states on the way forward.
Dahiru said, “Our meeting this(Wednesday) afternoon discussed basically   the issue of emergency rule in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. Everybody in attendance made contributions and a lot was said.
“The majority position is basically that we are not going with the state of emergency. That is our categorical position because we are not convinced that it is only the issue of emergency rule that could make the security personnel to achieve success in the area.
“We believe a lot of things ought to be addressed in order to conquer the issue of insurgency. So, our own position is that we are not going to support extension of the emergency rule in the area.
“We are going to engage the three governors in the affected states. We want to know what went wrong to be able to come up with better ways to tackle the crisis. However,  the government must work for the benefits of its citizens.
“The leadership of the affected states and our forum are saying no to emergency rule.
“The constitution requires two-thirds majority in terms of voting. Of course, we are going to vote on the issue. If we can outnumber them during the voting fine, but of course, our position is that we are going to vote against it.”
The Senate  had earlier on Wednesday passed a resolution summoning two ministers and the service chiefs to appear before it on Thursday(today) to explain the situation of things in  the three states  under  emergency rule   since May 2013.
Those invited by the Senate are the  ministers  of Defence    (Aliyu   Gusau) and   Police Affairs (Abduljelili Adesiyan);    the Chief of Defence Staff (Alex Badeh); the  service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar.