•Urges presidential assent to enabling bill
The National Commission Against Proliferation of Arms, Light Weapons and Pipeline Vandalism (NATCOM) has declared a total war on sellers, importers and hoarders of light guns, ammunition and chemical weapons.
The commission said in the next 100 days, it would clamp down on smugglers, while also calling on President Bola Tinubu for quick assent to the bill that seeks to establish the body.
The Acting Director-General, Dr. Adejare Adegbenro, made the disclosure, while addressing journalists shortly after being appointed to succeed Dr. Baba Mohammed, at the weekend, in Abuja.
The move followed calls to allow citizens to arm themselves against attacks and terrorism. Adegbenro added that the organisation would create 7,000 jobs in each state, as part of measures to tackle youth restiveness.
He said: “Our core mandate is to stop importation of illegal arms, ammunition and chemical weapons. It means that we have to go down even to the fishermen in each state from the lowest to the highest levels to make sure that we comply with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) treaty, which Nigeria is a signatory to since 2006. We must ensure that ammunition coming into our country through the borders and seas are stopped. We will also make sure that we try our best to work with other agencies with a view to knowing where these leakages are.
“So, we are going to make sure that in the next 100 days, we make a lot of seizures. We are undertaking a massive clampdown and would work with other agencies to make sure we achieve this. I will not say it is going to be an easy job, but we will succeed because I am a go-getter.”
The NATCOM boss said the initiative is consistent with the ECOWAS Commission rule, which forbids importation of illegal arms, ammunitions and chemical weapons.
Earlier, secretary of the commission’s standing committee, Fidel Agaba, while reading the communiqué, explained that Mohammed’s removal was to reposition NATCOM for efficiency. The decision, he added, is to boost the current administration’s drive to effectively secure Nigeria.
