Stephen Ukandu, News/Features Editor
Ikengaonline learned that before the invasion of Kuje prison by terrorists who freed over 1000 inmates including their members held in the facility, the Department of State Services, DSS, had shared 44 intelligence reports warning of such attacks.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Idris Wase, revealed this on the floor of the House on Tuesday.
Wase who made the revelation while speaking on a motion sponsored by Abubakar Yallemen from Jigawa State, on the need to halt the Federal Government’s proposed nationwide ban on commercial motorcycles, favoured any measure that could help stem the tide of insecurity in the country.
The lawmaker noted that though the ban on commercial motorcycles would adversely affect transportation system in local areas, it had become necessary to check insecurity.
According to the lawmaker, “for most of us — 90 percent of my community if not 99 percent — this is the only means of transportation,” he said.
“We appreciate his motion and sensibility, but in line with our principle to help in curbing the incessant insecurity in our country, we have to cooperate with the government.
“You cannot imagine what is happening today in Abuja. I’ll confirm to you that I went through the DSS report — 44 reports were given before the attack on Kuje.
“I want to say so. I want to confirm to you — 44. I read through all the reports and it all has to do with this. There is no community that one attack or the other will happen that you will not have Intel, and this is part of the Intel that they had given as to what is exactly going to happen. So, we have to cooperate with the government.”
Ikengaonline reports that Yallemen, had, in his motion, said the proposed ban on motorcycle operations “will render millions of Nigerians jobless, which could be catastrophic for a nation grappling with high unemployment and poverty rates.”
Continuing he argued that the ban “will inflict untold hardships on the generality of Nigerians as it is a common means of transportation among the citizenry, and may provide the terrorists with a pool of desperate youths to recruit.”
However, Yallemen stepped down the motion after the Deputy Speaker urged him to rescind it, advising that the ban is aimed at tackling insecurity bedeviling the country.
The House, unfortunately, did not debate on possible punishment for those who received but failed to use the intelligence report.
