Senate orders probe into Abuja killings

The Senate on Tuesday mandated its committees on National Security, Intelligence and Judiciary to immediately commence investigations into the circumstances that led to the death of eight people in the Apo area of Abuja following an encounter they had with operatives attached to the State Security Service (SSS) last Friday.

The SSS had killed some alleged Boko Haram members when they went to a house  at the Apo Legislative Quarters, Abuja to recover arms allegedly buried there by members of the sect.

Senator Sahabi Yau, representing  Zamfara North, had raised the point of order in the House directing his colleagues' attention to the controversial incident, which he said, had been generating series of  condemnations from Nigerians.

He therefore sought three prayers - the condemnation of the act by the senate, a one-minute silence for the victims and a thorough investigation of the incident with a view to recommending appropriate punishments for culprits.

However, Senate President David Mark, after listening to the submissions of other senators who commented on the issue, noted that it would be unfair for the Senate to grant the first and second prayers of Yau because doing so, without details of the incident could be prejudicial.

He said, 'It will be too hasty to start condemning the act because we don't have the details of what actually happened. We cannot rely on newspaper reports or rumours from members of the public.

'We condemn any form of extra-judicial killings as well as all forms of terrorism but we cannot condemn the operational procedure employed by the affected security agency because we don't know what actually happened.