The Senate on Tuesday urged the Chief of Army Staff to immediately re-establish a military command base in Garkida and all major settlements bordering the Sambisa forest.

The upper chamber also called on the North East Development Commission to immediately embark on the rehabilitation of public and religious institutions destroyed during the recent attacks carried out by Boko Haram terrorists on communities in the state.

The Senate lamented the development and urged the NEDC to provide assistance to other individuals affected by the senseless attacks.

The upper chamber equally urged the National Emergency Management Agency to urgently assess the extent of damage and provide relief materials immediately to affected residents of Garkida community.

The decision followed the adoption of the prayers sought by Senator Aishatu Ahmed, the member representing Adamawa Central Senatorial District.

Ahmed had reminded her colleagues that on the 21st February 2020, an insurgent group attacked the people of Garkida, a peaceful town in Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa Central Senatorial District.

She said the insurgents, in over seven gun trucks and many motorcycles, attacked the town at about 7 pm and set many buildings ablaze.

She lamented that three soldiers were killed in the attack while properties worth millions of naira were burnt or destroyed.

She said public hospitals, schools, telecommunication facilities, police stations, buses, cars, food stores, private properties belonging to the people of Garkida, were either burnt or vandalised.

She expressed worry that the Garkida crises were planned by the insurgents to have a religious connotation considering that churches and residences of some prominent indigenes were burnt.

She said the act was aimed at destroying the foundation of peaceful co-existence among Garkida community and in Adamawa State as a whole.

She further stressed the urgent need to take more drastic actions in the face of such affront on the nation’s security architecture, the region and indeed the entire nation.

She expressed concern that in view of the enormity of the situation, the Federal Government should put more innovative measures in place to frontally confront the challenges.AFP