Senate Asks Army to Establish Base in Sambisa Border Communities

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

The Senate yesterday urged the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai to immediately re-establish a military command base in Garkida and all major settlements bordering the Sambisa forest.

The lawmakers also called on the North East Development Commission (NEDC) to immediately embark on the rehabilitation of public and religious institutions destroyed during the recent attacks carried out by Boko Haram terrorists on communities in the state.

The Senate lamented the development and urged the NEDC to provide assistance to other individuals affected by the senseless attacks.

The upper chamber equally urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to urgently assess the extent of damage and provide relief materials immediately to affected residents of Garkida community.

The decision followed the adoption of the prayers sought by the member representing Adamawa Central Senatorial District, Senator Aishatu Ahmed.

Ahmed had reminded her colleagues that on February 21, 2020, an insurgent group attacked the people of Garkida, a peaceful town in Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa Central Senatorial District.

She said the insurgents, in over seven gun trucks and many motorcycles, attacked the town at about 7 pm and set many buildings ablaze.

She lamented that three soldiers were killed in the attack while properties worth millions of naira were burnt or destroyed.

She said public hospitals, schools, telecommunication facilities, police stations, buses, cars, food stores, private properties belonging to the people of Garkida, were either burnt or vandalised.

She expressed worry that the Garkida crises were planned by the insurgents to have a religious connotation considering that churches and residences of some prominent indigenes were burnt.

She said the act was aimed at destroying the foundation of peaceful co-existence among Garkida community and in Adamawa State as a whole.

The senator stressed the urgent need to take more drastic actions in the face of such affront on the nation’s security architecture, the region and indeed the entire nation.