The House of Representatives Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, on Thursday, said Nigerians must be allowed to take up arms and defend themselves against terrorists.
He advocated for the bearing of arms when the lawmakers debated, on the floor of the House, the growing insecurity in the country, during which emotions ran high in the chamber.
This is after a member of the House, Shehu Balarabe, moved a motion of urgent public importance on the killings in Kaduna.
The majority leader said, “I think Nigerians, at this moment, should be allowed to also take arms. Nigerians must be allowed to take arms in defence of their innocent souls; to defend their hard-earned resources and properties, because it is like a monumental failure. If the security agencies have failed, then Nigerians should not be failed; Nigerians should not be seen as failures.
“Let Nigerians organise themselves in the name of civil defence. Let them organise and arrange the defence of their own innocent souls. If the responsibility of the government and the security agencies cannot be carried out democratically, everyone has cause to defend themselves.
“Nigerians should no longer be running away from attack(ers); Nigerians should no longer be running away from banditry in the face of helplessness when the government and security agencies are failing in their basic responsibilities.”
Ado-Doguwa also took a swipe at the leaders of the nation’s security architecture for failing to answer the invitation by the leadership of the House on Wednesday over the recent attack on the Kaduna International Airport and an Abuja-Kaduna train.
“The committee that was set by this House to interface and engage with security agencies must be taken with all sense of seriousness. And if any of them fails to come, we will enforce (sic) the wrath of the law on him, because we have the instrumentality of the parliament as an institution to summon anyone by hook or crook,” he stated.