Insecurity: Senate Scraps Air Force, Intelligence Committees Over Poor Oversight

The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday announced the immediate dissolution of its standing committees on Air Force, National Security, and Intelligence, citing poor oversight showing and underwhelming security outcomes.

Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele opened the session by questioning the committees’ performance, a concern echoed across party lines and validated by lawmakers who agreed that tactical oversight must produce measurable security results, not procedural motions.

The Senate thereafter resolved to reconstitute new committees within one week, directing that membership and leadership structures be unveiled at the next plenary.

Following the dissolution, the Senate directed chairmen of its remaining standing committees on Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, Defence, Nigeria Police Force, Interior and Special Duties to brief the upper chamber within seven days in a closed-door security oversight audit.

The audit session will assess progress on national insecurity coordination and determine if the committees still justify their existence.

It stated clearly, “The chairmen must report back within one week and attend the closed-door lecture parade of oversight accountability tomorrow. Attendance will be taken from the nominal roll.”

Kebbi Pre-Attack Troops Withdrawal Under Senate Lens

In a linked development, and against the unsettling backdrop of rising banditry and kidnappings nationwide, lawmakers opened a multi-layered probe into the withdrawal of police and military personnel from Kebbi State prior to the girl-school invasion by bandits.

The Senate mandated a joint investigative panel involving the committees on Army, Defence, Police Affairs, Interior, and Special Duties, tasking them to assess:

• Why security boots were pulled back before the attack.

• How the suspected negotiators and syndicates used the vacuum to strike again.

• The institutional lessons from Kebbi and copycat raids in other northern communities.

The chamber ruled that findings must be submitted within 14 days, while actionable countermeasures must be recommended alongside intelligence analysis.

Brig-Gen Uba Killing, Security-Community Gaps Under Investigation

At the same sitting, the Senate also probed the circumstances surrounding the killing of Brigadier-General Uba, former security oversight figure arrested in Egypt and returned to Nigeria in 2022.

The chamber directed that both reports, Kebbi troops withdrawal and Brig-Gen Uba’s killing be compiled under the same 14-day timeline, and forwarded to leadership review organs thereafter.

The chamber further resolved that Senate leadership will meet immediately with President Bola Tinubu to brief him on the resolutions reached during the national security debate.

In addition, lawmakers also greenlit diplomatic engagements with the United States Department of State to recalibrate security cooperation, intelligence sharing, and operational safeguards, especially for remote communities hit by repeated abductions.

Speaking during the session, key voices asserted that oversight must now show scale, depth, and outcomes.

“Nobody is bigger than this institution,” the Senate maintained.

The chamber emphasised that national insecurity cannot be solved through optics and press statements, but through structured oversight, credible intelligence, community policing reinforcement, and persistent boots-on-ground operations that neutralise criminal networks, not empower them.