The Senate Committee on Defence and Army on Wednesday in Abuja urged the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Kenneth Minimah, to relocate temporarily to Maiduguri, Borno State.
The Senator Thompson Sekibo-led Committee made the call at the 2014 budget defence of the committee.
Sekibo said the committee condemned what it described as the atrocity being unleashed by the Boko Haram sect on innocent citizens of North Eastern Nigeria.
He said that as part of measures to curb the activities of the Boko Haram sect, the committee also wanted all schools and health institutions from now on to be provided with special security.
“We heard of your planned relocation to Maiduguri, we hereby as the committee overseeing your activities, direct that your office relocate temporarily to the 7th Division in Maiduguri.
“This is so that you take urgent and appropriate steps to quell the situation.
“The Chief of Army staff should also restrategise on possible new ways of curbing these excesses and mobilise all military resources and face the insurgents.”
Sekibo said because of the situation, the committee would receive the budget proposals without going through the lines.
He said: “”No one goes to the town square to dance when there is fire in his house.
“For us, the quelling of this insurgency and giving confidence of safety to Nigerians is of utmost priority.”
The committee further called on President Goodluck Jonathan to mobilise all the needed resources for the Armed Forces to face the challenge.
“This battle must be won to sustain our nation’s stability and unity as it is only in the atmosphere of peace and tranquillity that development can be carried out,” Sekibo said.
He also said the committee would take a tour of the three affected states when the Senate resumed from its recess.
In his response, Minimah said that the Army was in dire need of more funds.
Minimah assured the committee that the Army was up to the task and it was just a matter of time before it would bring the insurgents to their knees.
Meanwhile, the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba has described the Tuesday Yobe State killings as “crossing the border of decency”.
In a personally signed statement, Ndoma-Egba said the killing of about 40 students showed that the sect planned to plunge Nigeria into a “bleak and blank future”.
The Senate Leader said: “It is obvious that we are now dealing with a bunch of animals to whom human life is now totally meaningless and worthless.
“When you attack students, you are attacking the foundation of the country’s future. So this attack to me, is to plunge the nation into a bleak and blank future.”
He called for an urgent modification of the security strategy to include hot pursuit as this was permissible in international law.
The Senate President, Senator David Mark, has also condemned the murder of students of the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe State by insurgents.
Mark’s condemnation was contained in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Paul Mumeh, on Wednesday in Abuja.
Mark said that the insurgents had no justification to kill students who neither offended them nor committed any crime, saying: “Even in war situations, children and women are always spared.
“This open declaration of war on everybody, especially defenceless students, cannot be justified. This is inhuman, it is animalistic and barbaric.
“It is also curious that this mayhem persists under an emergency rule when security operatives should be on red alert.
“This calls for soul searching and I believe the security authorities must rise to this challenge.”
Mark sympathised with the government and people of Yobe State, especially the families of the bereaved, saying that the attacks called “for bravery on the part of every one to confront.”
The Senate president also condoled with the government and people of Benue State over the killings in parts of the state following clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers.
No fewer than 10,000 persons are said to have been displaced in Benue as a result of the clashes.
In a message to the Benue State Governor, Dr. Gabriel Suswam, Mark called for peaceful coexistence and good neighbourliness.
He also sympathised with the victims and requested security operatives to take appropriate measures to halt the trend in order to restore normalcy to the affected communities.
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