The National Centre for Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons has retrieved 20,000 weapons and 60,000 units of ammunition from illicit handlers in Nigeria in three years.
Besides, the Centre entrusted to check the proliferation of illegal weapons in the country, revealed that a significant percentage of weapons recovered were smuggled from Libya, Chad, and the Republic of Niger.
National Coordinator of the Centre, Brig. General, A. Mohammad Dikko rtd. made the account on Thursday at a stakeholders sensitization against the proliferation of illegal weapons and ammunition held at 3 bridge Nigerian Army, Bukavo Barrack, Kano.
Brig. General Dikko, represented by North West Zonal coordinator of the centre, Air Vice Marshal Haruna Umar Muhammad rtd, lamented that the dangerous trend of infiltration of illegal weapons is largely responsible for the increasing rate of insecurity in the country.
The national coordinator disclosed that the centre, operating under the office of National Security Adviser (NSA) said the centre is still tracing the link of the smuggled weapons, while appealing to Nigerians to assist the centre with useful intelligence to nip the trend in the bud.
Earlier, assistant Director, Strategic Communications at the Centre, Brig. General Muhammad Sani rtd. cautioned parents to be mindful of their children’s attitudes and conscious of bad peers harbouring weapons in their vicinity.
He maintained that it is illegal for any resident to possess weapons without obtaining relevant and necessary certification from the right authorities.
Brig. General Sani emphasized that centre is committed to drive home advocacy campaign against proliferation of illicit weapons to reduce crimes and criminalities in the country, he insisted excuses of unemployment, poverty and drug abuse should not be enough justification to carry weapons.
Participants including members of National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) had rised concern on lack of white collar jobs, level of poverty among other factors responsible for insecurity and proliferation of illicit weapon.
On his part, retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, and district head of Albasu local government area of Kano state, under Gaya emirate, AIG Bashir Albasu urged the office of National Security Adviser to incorporate traditional rulers in the recovery of illegal weapons.
Retired AIG Albasu pointed that traditional leaders play critical role in intelligence gathering in their various localities, hence should not be neglected in the fight to eradicate illicit weapons in the country.
