My phone detected 277 guns around the Senate chamber - Jimoh Ibrahim

The Senator representing the Ondo South District, Jimoh Ibrahim, has revealed how he has been using technology to remain security conscious, even when he's on the floor of the National Assembly.

The senator made this known while contributing to a motion raised by Senator Ali Ndume of Borno South during plenary on Wednesday, July 3, 2024.

Ndume's motion bordered on the recent suicide bombing incidents in the Borno State over last weekend.

No fewer than 18 people were killed and many others injured when two female suicide bombers detonated Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), first at a wedding event and later at the funeral of the dead victims of the initial attack.

Senator Ibrahim calls for technological adoption

Meanwhile, Senator Ibrahim argued that the military could have deployed technology to detect such attacks and nip them in the board.

The lawmaker claimed that some installations on his phone had detected over 277 guns around the Senate chamber at the time of the deliberation.

"I don't want to take much of your time but I will say clearly it costs nothing for the intelligent army to get devices in their phone to know where these notorious criminals live.

"As I am here, I check my phone regularly and I know the number of guns that are very close to me here. This is just less than one thousand installations. Within us now, there are over 277 guns around here just because an armoury is close to this place," the Ondo senator said.

When asked by Senate President Godswill Akpabio that "Of the 277 guns around you here, do you know how many of them have bullets inside?" Ibrahim said since there was an armoury close to the red chamber, the senators were safe.

Ibrahim stresses why military needs to adopt technology

The senator stressed the need for the military to deploy technological tools in the fight against insurgency.

"So, what I am saying? We can use technology, just like distinguished Senator Ndume had said, to deploy technology rather than using soldiers," he said.

"I want to say very clearly that the military should stop using unconventional strategies to fight insurgency in Nigeria. There is a distinction between unconventional and conventional strategy. We need to use conventional strategy to fight unconventional war. Boko Haram is an unconventional war," Senator Jimoh argued.

"We are all aware of what happened in Kenya. We cannot close our eyes, we need to wake up. So, I will finally suggest to you, Mr Senate President, and my distinguished colleagues, that this Senate under your leadership, sir, must have a closed-door meeting for one day and then use that whole day to discuss security matters. Our lives are very important," he added.