Lawyers have queried the rationale behind the monthly allocation of security vote to state governors amidst rising insecurity in the country.
The lawyers were unanimous in calling for the scrapping of security vote, saying it is not being properly used by many state governors.
Speaking while appearing before the House Committee on FCT last week Monday to defend the N1.1 trillion budget of his ministry, Wike said he need security vote to tackle the insecurity currently ravaging the FCT. Wike said: Security vote has become necessary to enable the FCT Administration fund covert operations by security agencies to eliminate threats without going through the rigours of official bureaucracy capable of delaying action and revealing sensitive security information.
However, one of the lawyers said, “The major problem is that there is this erroneous impression that you dont account for security votes. Why is it that despite the deployment of security votes, insecurity still persists in the country?, it is because the security votes are not being used judiciously by those the funds were subjected to.
Another one said: The people in government should tell Nigerians what they are doing with security votes. Who are they securing? They are only securing themselves.
Despite the collection of security votes by those in positions of power, the level of insecurity in the country has not abated and that instead, it is on the increase. The above quotes were part of the submissions of some senior lawyers while expressing critical views on how the monthly allocation of security votes to state governors are being expended. The lawyers spoke on the heels of a recent plea by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to the House of Representatives to empower him to spend security votes like State governors.
As revealed by a recent report by Transparency International (TI), most of the funds appropriated as security votes are spent on political activities, mismanaged or simply stolen. It is estimated that security votes add up to over N241.2 billion every year.
Speaking on whether State governors are not expanding security votes on security, and what should be done to end the era of misuse of security votes by governors, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Solo Akuma, who stated that though the state governors are entitled to it, argued that it is not only state governors that are entitled to security votes.
While stating that the stick and-carrot approach being adopted will not perform any magic in resolving the security crisis in Nigeria, the SAN suggested that the worsening security situation in the country should be tackled frontally.
