- By Halimah Olamide
A member of the senate representing Benue South Senatorial District Abba Moro on Tuesday demanded answers to the attacks on banks in Otukpo which left many dead last Friday.
NPO Reported that armed robbers had robbed branches of banks located in Otukpo the political headquarters of Idoma land. They killed the Divisional Police Officer and his men while also killing many other residents in and outside the bank premises.
Moro, who is an Idoma himself and from Otukpa raised a motion of urgent national interest at the Senate calling for a probe of the incident.
Specifically, the Senator demanded to know how the robbers dominated the whole Otukpo town for more than one hour without any challenge from the security agencies.
Short of alleging collaboration, Moro said the Local Government officials of the Directorate of State Security and the police had no hint whatsoever of the attacks.
Moro lamented that for one hour, the robbers were Strolling in the town while
Many residents even followed their cars.
Presenting the motion, Moro expressed concerns that suspected robbers numbering over 50 on vehicles and motorcycles invaded the community beating multiple security check points without being apprehended.
“About eight innocent Nigerians including four police officers lost their lives in the attacks,” he said.
Moro said that the robbers spent over an hour with little or no resistance, holding the entire town hostage and carted away millions of naira as well as police ammunition.
The lawmaker blamed the robbery on lack of intelligence report from security agencies including the Department of States Service (DSS).
“The government of the day must sit up and brace for the challenge,” he said.
Moro said that the call for the establishment of local police formations was not the way out of the current security challenges.
“Most of the state governments cannot pay civil servants. Therefore, adding more burden on them is not the way to go in my opinion,” he said.