New security measures introduced by the
management of the National Assembly have tightened access to senators
and members of the House of Representatives.
Our correspondent learnt on Tuesday that beginning from June 28, visitors to the National Assembly would be required to fulfil some tough conditions before they would be allowed access to their lawmakers.
Findings showed that one of the conditions required would be filling the visitor’s form days before a scheduled visit.
According to the requirement, a Senator or member of the House, expecting a visitor has to give the name of the visitor, and the purpose of the visit to the security department of the legislature prior to the visit.
“Each of the 109 senators and each of the 360 members of the House has been given 50 forms in compliance with this latest security requirement.
“A visitor, whose name is not submitted ahead of time to the security department, will not be allowed access to see any lawmaker”, a National Assembly official told The PUNCH in Abuja on Tuesday.
The forms are to be replaced whenever a lawmaker exhausts his stock.
The Sergeant-At-Arms to the National Assembly, Col. Emeka Okere (retd), confirmed the development when he was contacted.
Okere said the information on the forms would be used to track the movement of callers to the National Assembly, as there would be records on who visited whom and for what purpose.
“It is for their own safety (lawmakers) and security; besides, we believe that our legislators should be given enough space to do their work.
“We are going to be a little tough this time around; the era of people flooding the National Assembly for no clearly defined reasons, we want to stop it”, Okere added.
He claimed that the new measure was not a direct response to the spate of bombings in the country “but something we had already worked out before the recent security threats.”
However, he admitted that the bombings had made the need to “further strengthen our existing security arrangements and operations.”
Okere said that the National Assembly had hired the services of “ballistic or bomb experts” to assist the legislature in putting measures to check-mate likely security breaches.
As part of the measures, Okere said access to the public arcade at the National Assembly had been restricted.
Until now, the arcade had been converted to a car park for visitors and members of staff, thereby defeating its primary use as a venue where legislators receive complaints from members of the public.
“Criminals and all sort of people started hiding at the arcade; in the process, they were stealing things as was evident in the cases of reported car theft,” he added.
By John Ameh Courtesy Of: Punch
Our correspondent learnt on Tuesday that beginning from June 28, visitors to the National Assembly would be required to fulfil some tough conditions before they would be allowed access to their lawmakers.
Findings showed that one of the conditions required would be filling the visitor’s form days before a scheduled visit.
According to the requirement, a Senator or member of the House, expecting a visitor has to give the name of the visitor, and the purpose of the visit to the security department of the legislature prior to the visit.
“Each of the 109 senators and each of the 360 members of the House has been given 50 forms in compliance with this latest security requirement.
“A visitor, whose name is not submitted ahead of time to the security department, will not be allowed access to see any lawmaker”, a National Assembly official told The PUNCH in Abuja on Tuesday.
The forms are to be replaced whenever a lawmaker exhausts his stock.
The Sergeant-At-Arms to the National Assembly, Col. Emeka Okere (retd), confirmed the development when he was contacted.
Okere said the information on the forms would be used to track the movement of callers to the National Assembly, as there would be records on who visited whom and for what purpose.
“It is for their own safety (lawmakers) and security; besides, we believe that our legislators should be given enough space to do their work.
“We are going to be a little tough this time around; the era of people flooding the National Assembly for no clearly defined reasons, we want to stop it”, Okere added.
He claimed that the new measure was not a direct response to the spate of bombings in the country “but something we had already worked out before the recent security threats.”
However, he admitted that the bombings had made the need to “further strengthen our existing security arrangements and operations.”
Okere said that the National Assembly had hired the services of “ballistic or bomb experts” to assist the legislature in putting measures to check-mate likely security breaches.
As part of the measures, Okere said access to the public arcade at the National Assembly had been restricted.
Until now, the arcade had been converted to a car park for visitors and members of staff, thereby defeating its primary use as a venue where legislators receive complaints from members of the public.
“Criminals and all sort of people started hiding at the arcade; in the process, they were stealing things as was evident in the cases of reported car theft,” he added.
By John Ameh Courtesy Of: Punch
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