This is what Buhari discussed with Saraki, Dogara

President Muhammadu Buhari has just finished a meeting with Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara at the State House, Abuja.

The meeting essentially dwelt on the security situation in the country and the recent killings in Plateau State, a source at the Villa has told Pulse.

Dogara refused to say what was discussed at the meeting, saying security matters are better kept a secret.

“It was an appraisal of what has been done so far to stem the rising insecurity in the country and what can be done to nip the rampant killings and clashes between nomadic herders and farmers in the bud”, the Villa source told

Pulse was also told that Dogara and Saraki suggested that the president does something about Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris.

Idris has thrice shunned summons from federal lawmakers to appear at the senate to discuss the rising insecurity in the land.

In May, Saraki and the senate declared Idris an "enemy of democracy".

According to the senate, this latest meeting “was requested by the presiding officers of NASS”.

Osinbajo and Buhari visit Plateau

President Buhari dispatched Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to Plateau Statein the wake of the killings and hopped on the presidential jet himself to Plateau on Tuesday, June 26.

In Plateau, Buhari said he has been piling pressure on the military chiefs to curb the spate of killings by gunmen suspected to be herdsmen.

“I will continue to pressurize members of the law enforcement agencies directly under me by the Constitution as the Commander-in Chief. About eight days ago, we had five hours security meeting of the service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police”, the president said.

'Herdsmen carry sticks'

Buhari has received plenty of flak for allegedly being soft on the herders who hail from the same Fulani ethnic stock as he does.

But the president said his critics have been unfair in this regard. Buhari also absolved herdsmen of Fulani extraction of any culpability in the current crisis because they bear no arms.

“Take for instance the situation in Benue. The Benue subsistence farmer knows that the Nigerian cattle herder that he knows doesn’t carry nothing more than a stick, occasionally sometimes something to cut grass to feed his cattle.

“But the present herder, I am told, carries AK47 and people are even blaming me for not talking to them because maybe (they say) I look like one of them”.

Nigeria has been grappling with herdsmen-farmers clashes for as long as anyone can remember, with the crisis leading to a spiralling death toll since the turn of the year.

A conservative estimate puts the number of those killed in grazing related violence since January at close to 1,000.