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Senate wants communications ministry to partner security agencies on crime prevention

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The Senate on Wednesday urged the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to collaborate with security agencies whenever a crime is aided and abetted through the use of Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards.

The resolution followed the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Legislative Compliance presented during plenary by its Chairman, Sen. Oriolowo Adeyemi

The upper chamber also urged the Federal Government to implement its recommendation on the security architecture of the country.

The report is on the spate of growing insecurity in Nigeria.

The Senate had set up an ad hoc committee on the “Urgent Need to Restructure, Review and Reorganise the Security Architecture in the country”.

Part of the committe’s recommendations include call for the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force as a way of improving efficiency aimed at addressing the problem of insecurity bedeviling the country.

“We recommend to the executive arm of government that the Police Command structure be decentralised with operational and budgetary powers vested in the zonal commands.

“It advised the Federal Government to make full payment of allowances to officers and men involved in operations.”

Presenting the report, Adeyemi said that his committee was mandated to invite the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy’

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He said that the invitation was “to impress on him the need to implement the resolutions of the Senate regarding security related to the mandate of his Ministry.”

“We recommend that the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy should submit proposal for legislative action to any Section(s) of the extant Laws of any of its Agencies toward reducing the nation’s insecurity challenges.”

The Committee chairman noted that the minister, Dr Isa Pantami, had informed the committee that the Ministry in 2019 directed the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to ensure that all unregistered and improperly registered SIM cards be blocked.

While quoting the minister, Adeyemi said that the exercise resulted into the blocking of nine million SIM Cards from the networks by Sept. 13, 2019.

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RIVERS PEOPLE, BEWARE OF DISTANT VOICES: A RESPONSE TO PROF. FEMI OTUBANJO I read with considerable concern the recent commentary by Professor Femi Otubanjo on Arise TV (Thursday, 28 May 2026), in which he sought to lecture the people of Rivers State on the supposed dangers of the political realignment around the Honourable Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barr. Nyesom Wike, CON. With all due respect to the Professor’s academic standing, his intervention compels a firm reply- both for the record and for the protection of our state from the steady traffic of distant commentary that increasingly seeks to dictate what Rivers people should think, feel, and do. The Question No One is Asking: Let me begin with the question that polite analysis has avoided: what exactly is the business of an Abuja-based academic in the internal political affairs of Rivers State? Rivers is not short of analysts, elders, traditional rulers, professionals, and statesmen who have lived through the dynamics being discussed. We do not require imported interpretation of our own history. When commentators from outside our state appoint themselves the conscience of our politics, I see it as a subtle insult and we are entitled to ask, courteously but firmly: on whose behalf, and to what end? Every state in this country has its share of unresolved questions. We have not heard Rivers analysts setting themselves up as the moral compass of other regions. That restraint is called respect. We expect the same in return. The Wike Record is a Record, Not a Rumour: The framing that Barr. Nyesom Wike is somehow “imposing” himself on Rivers politics is an insult to the intelligence of every Rivers person. The Honourable Minister served this state as Governor for eight consecutive years. He transformed our capital, expanded our institutions, exposed our professionals — myself included — to advanced strategic training, and projected the name of Rivers State onto the national stage with a force we had not previously known. Today, his stewardship of the FCT has earned national acclaim and brought honour to every Rivers son and daughter. A man of that record is not an “external force.” He is the architect of the political structure under discussion. To treat him as an intruder is to rewrite recent history in plain daylight. On the Misnamed “Sidelining”: Professor Otubanjo speaks of the “ousting” of a sitting Governor as if it were a spontaneous act of malice. With respect, this framing skips over everything that matters. The fracture in Rivers did not begin with the current realignment; it began with a documented pattern of governance failures that the constitutional institutions of our state have been compelled to address — failures we Rivers people lived through, in real time, while distant commentators were silent or oblivious. To skip over the substance and arrive at “sympathy for the underdog” is not analysis. It is editorial. The Sympathy Vote Theory Has Already Been Tested: The Professor suggests that Rivers voters may revolt in sympathy. This is the kind of armchair hypothesis that sounds clever in a television studio but collapses on contact with reality. The FCT Area Council results, the orderly emergence of candidates across our APC primaries- governorship, National Assembly, State Assembly — and the visible consolidation of the political base in Rivers all tell a different story. The data does not support the Professor’s prediction. Rivers people have already spoken with their feet. A Pattern We Must Recognise: I am compelled to draw the attention of my fellow Rivers people to something larger than a single television interview. There is a discernible pattern of voices, conveniently located outside Rivers, who have suddenly developed a passionate interest in our internal affairs. Some are sincere. Many are not. The question every discerning Rivers person must ask is: why now, why these voices, and who benefits when our unity is unsettled? This is the season in which a state’s future is decided. It is also the season in which interlopers and saboteurs find their loudest voices. We have seen this script before, in other states, and we have seen what happens to states that allow themselves to be steered from outside. A Call to Rivers People: My fellow Rivers people, the future of our state must be authored by us, for us. Let us not be distracted, divided, or directed by voices that have no stake in our soil. Let us close ranks behind the leadership that has delivered for us, time and time again the leadership of Barr. Nyesom Wike, whose record speaks even when his critics shout. Let us support the candidates he has helped present, from the governorship down to every House of Assembly seat. This is not blind followership. It is informed loyalty rooted in evidence, history, and lived experience. To do otherwise to allow distant analysts to lecture us into doubt is to surrender our agency at the precise moment when it matters most. Rivers State is too rich, too strategic, and too proud to be a chessboard on which others move pieces. Conclusion: I make these observations as an elder of Rivers State and as a citizen exercising my fundamental right to speak on matters affecting my people. I will not be intimidated into silence by the academic gowns of distant commentators, and I urge every Rivers person of conscience to refuse the same. We are mature enough, sophisticated enough, and politically aware enough to think for ourselves. The Honourable Minister of the FCT has earned our loyalty through years of demonstrated commitment. The 2027 election is ours to win, not anyone else’s to predict. Let Rivers people stand together, alert, united, and unmoved by the noise from outside. Dr. George C. Nwaeke, FCA, mni Former Head of Service, Rivers State

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