GOVERNOR Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on insecurity in the country.
The governor, who made the call in his keynote address at the quarterly meeting of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria held in Katsina, yesterday, said his administration in collaboration with the state House of Assembly has put in place measures, including a new legal framework to check insecurity in the state.
He added that through the new laws, security committees were created to provide security agencies with useful information on the activities of criminals and review the role of traditional rulers in the maintenance of law and order in their various domains.
He commended the speakers for choosing Katsina State as the venue for the meeting.
In his address, the Chairman of the Conference of Speakers, Abubakar Suleiman, said his colleagues were disturbed by the worsening insecurity in the country.
Suleiman, who is the Speaker of Bauchi State House of Assembly, lamented that the problem not only threatens the country’s economic development but its peace and unity.
He said: “The Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria, is an umbrella body for the speakers of the 36 state Houses of Assembly in Nigeria set up to, among other things, provide a forum for Speakers of the State Houses of Assembly to discuss and proffer solutions to issues and problems affecting the Conference and its members in particular and the nation in general.
“We, therefore, convened this meeting to discuss and proffer solutions to this problem within our constitutional mandate. We hope legislative frameworks at the sub-national level adopted will go a long way to complement the efforts of the Federal Government to check insecurity in the country.”
