The Presidency will not seek an extension of the emergency rule imposed on three Northeast states which expired on Saturday, a top government official has said.
President Goodluck Jonathan had on May 14 last year declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states in exercise of his powers under section 305, subsection 1 of the 1999 Constitution, giving the military broader muscles to fight the insurgency.
He had followed the emergency declaration with the transmission of its details to the National Assembly, where they were approved. In November last year, the National Assembly approved a request by Jonathan to extend the state of emergency by another six months.
The extension of the emergency rule expired yesterday without any new request by the President to prolong the state of emergency in the affected states.
Before the state of emergency lapsed Saturday, there had been a lot of resistance, especially from the North-east against an extension.
A senior government official who pleaded not to be named because he was no authorised to speak on the issue, said the Federal Government resolved not to seek an extension because the emergency rule had not achieved a resounding success.
The official also said the presidency was aware of the rising opposition from leaders in the affected zone and the fact that the House of Representatives was not disposed to an extension.
“The presidency would not be asking for an extension because such a request would not scale through in the House of Representatives”.
To continue with the prosecution of the war against insurgents in the North-east, however, the official said government would now rely on the Terrorism Prevention Act, the Nigerian Army Act and the powers of the National Security Agencies Act.
The National Security Agencies Act established the Defence Intelligence Agency, the National Intelligence Agency and the State Security Service.
