Reacting to allegations from the presidency that the threat is a political war against the president, the lawmaker asked, “Do you feel secure in Nigeria? So, how can it be a political war? We are not talking politics here; we are talking security. Security is not politics. Like I said, this is a bipartisan effort to ensure that the executive is up and doing and the six-week notice is just the last stroke.

“We have been giving recommendations and budgetary support since 2017, talking about insecurity in Nigeria. So, it is not as if it’s just happening in the last six weeks. We have been talking about it and passing resolutions. We have been giving them money; they brought supplementary budget, we passed it. We have given every cooperation that we can.

“They now came with a supplementary budget of about N900 billion for security and we passed it. We gave them the N900 billion they asked for. We gave them that money, proud that we were giving money for security issues. Anytime they asked for money concerning security, this Senate and the National Assembly as a whole is always very serious about it. That’s where we are. The bottom line is that security is not improving. We are not talking about money now; we are just saying let security improve.”

He declared that the six-week impeachment notice the Senate issued on President Buhari to correct the insecurity situation in the country is real, saying: “It appears that the focus has been on part two, that is the impeachment notice. Yes. That one is real. We are serious about that, but we will only get there if part one, which is the actions against the situation in our country does not improved.

“For instance, why are there people in captivity from the Kaduna train incident? Why has nobody been arrested or nobody been held accountable for what happened in Kuje prison? These are actions that can immediately be taken by Mr President to show that he’s in tandem with us; the number of actions that need to be taken to show that yes, we are doing something about the situation and we are going to resolve this situation. That’s what we are talking about.”

He explained that the six weeks impeachment notice is not just about the opposition. “I think a number of our leaders have made that point and it’s about the Senate. We are the ones speaking. We are the ones at the forefront, but it’s not just about us, it is about the entire National Assembly.”

On whether the impeachment threat will not just be a threat on paper, Bassey said, “Our hope is that we won’t get to that. Our hope is that the executive will act and take steps. Look, people are dying everyday. A lot of people feel insecure wherever they are in Nigeria. The essence of the action is to reduce to a large extent, if possible, even go towards eliminating insecurity. Our hope is that this government finally do the needful and restore security to our nation.”