The Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, and his counterpart in the Committee on Defence, Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, have condemned Tuesday’s attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA).

Ndume urged President Muhammdu Buhari to brief Nigerians regularly on his efforts to curb insecurity in the country.

Wammako, in a statement in Abuja, described the development as “devastating” and “outrageous”.

Ndume, who spoke to reporters in Abuja, said the president should create a situation room on the security situation.

Ndume urged the President to cultivate the habit of visiting incident areas to assess the situation.

“I am just being worried that the President is not talking to Nigerians. In a situation like this, silence is not golden. If the U.S. President could be addressing Americans every day on the issue in Afghanistan, I also expect President Muhammadu Buhari, to be addressing Nigerians either daily, weekly or fortnightly on the security situations across Nigeria.

“The usual statement from his media aides is not the solution. The President should create a situation room to brief Nigerians on the current situation and what his government is doing about it.

”He should also cultivate the habit of visiting places where incidents happen to physically assess the situation on the ground,” Ndume said.

He urged military authorities to be more alert to fish out moles thwarting efforts to combat insecurity in the country.

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He urged those who have credible intelligence about sponsors of banditry and insurgency in the country to approach the military with such information.

He said: “It is the responsibility of the military personnel at this stage to keep watch over one another and expose the activities of the moles among them who could have sympathy for the insurgents and prevent the unpatriotic insiders from giving out information that could sabotage the good works the Nigerian military is doing to end terror, banditry and other criminal activities in the country.

“Those who are making allegations about sponsors of Boko Haram should come out and give out specific facts to the security agencies so that the alleged sponsors could be arrested, questioned and prosecuted if any wrongdoing is established against them.

“The institutions of government are there and they are willing to listen and act appropriately. Anybody who is sure of himself and armed with proven information or intelligence should bring it out.”

Ndume added: “It is not true that the repentant terrorists are being recruited into the military. The best the military could get from them is information. The Nigerian Army cannot even do that without following a laid down process of recruitment.

“It is also not true that the Department of State Services is granting amnesty to repentant Boko Haram commanders and giving them financial empowerment. The DSS cannot do that because it doesn’t have the mandate to carry out such a task.

“Even the President cannot grant such amnesty without the involvement of the National Assembly. The DSS cannot do such thing in secret.”

Wammako, who is a former Sokoto State governor, said it was “devastating hearing about the outrageous attack which has brought to the fore, yet again, the nature of the problem we are dealing with”.

He sympathised with Buhari, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Lucky Irabor and other Service Chiefs over the dastardly incident.

“It is sad that the precious lives of our well-trained officers were sniffed out in the unwarranted orgy of violence, not in the battlefront but right in their homes,” he said.

Wamakko said everything possible must be done to rescue the kidnapped military officer from the bandits, and further ensure security around the NDA facilities as well as all other communities.

“This is yet another wake-up call not only for our security forces but indeed all Nigerians to wake up and be more decisive on ending this menace.

“I sympathise with His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari, the Service Chiefs and families of the affected officers,” Wamakko, who is also the chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, said.