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The Senate Committee on Interior has deferred the budget defence of security agencies till further notice.
It excused the Federal Fire Service (FFS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) from the 2021 budget defence due to the fallout of the #EndSARS protests that has led to violence in some parts of the country over the .
The committee said the decision was taken to enable the security agencies attend to the current security challenges.
The development followed a motion by a member of the committee, George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers) during the defence.
He said: “There should be no need to keep any of the security agencies at the National Assembly for too long at this time when their attentions are required on the streets.”
The committee, chaired by Kashim Shettima, accepted the prayer and consequently asked the security agencies to lay their budget estimates and leave for their duty posts.
Also, Shettima confirmed to reporters the receipt of the proposed 2021 budgets of the Fire Service and the NSCDC.
He said the panel would subject the documents to scrutiny and that even though there was the need for questions, he did not think it was appropriate to keep the security chiefs more than necessary.
“Two paramilitary organisations, the Federal Fire Service and the NSCDC, submitted their budgets for 2021 for scrutiny to the Senate Committee on Interior.
“We have received their submissions and we will subject their submissions to microscopic scrutiny. When the need arises, we will call them back to shed more light.
“But in the light of the ongoing challenges and issues of the pandemic, we felt compelled not to dissipate their useful time and energy answering a lot of questions from us.
“But right now, some of their organisations are under attack, some of their offices were burnt down.
“How do you expect us to hold them to ransom here? There are no compelling issues to hold them longer than necessary,” Shettima said.