…Backs President Tinubu on State Police to Curb Insecurity
The National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, NCCSALW, says it has destroyed over 4,000 decommissioned, illicit, and unserviceable weapons recovered from security agencies and criminal elements across the country.
Director General of the Centre, DIG Johnson Babatunde Kokumo (Rtd), stated this during a working visit to the Southwest Zonal Office in Ado-Ekiti.
Represented by the Director of Research and Plans, Major General Sanni Suleiman, DIG Kokumo explained that such exercises are part of efforts to reduce public access to Small Arms and Light Weapons.
He said the Centre had begun the mop-up of more weapons nationwide and would ensure their destruction soon. He also urged members of the public to provide credible information to the Centre about unauthorized persons in possession of any form of weapons.
According to him, access to small arms and light weapons is a major factor contributing to the high rate of insecurity in the country.
He said: “This visit is an annual event that we do on an annual basis. The Director General usually goes around the entire country to all the zonal offices in all the geopolitical zones to see for himself the progress of the activities of the offices, and this time it is the turn of the Southwest Zone.”
“I’m glad to say that the Southwest Zone is doing quite well and recently I know they have also retrieved a large amount of ammunition. They have also retrieved some weapons and they contributed greatly to the quantities of weapons we recently destroyed. And in the next few weeks we also intend to do another round of destruction of retrieved illicit weapons.”
“Availability of illicit small weapons are actually the major drivers of insecurity across the nation. Most of the criminals, the bandits, the kidnappers all make use of essentially AK-47, which is also under the categorization of small arms and light weapons. So our effort is to ensure that we mop up those arms that are already in the hands of unlawful handlers of such weapons.”*
“However, within this short period of time, the Centre has retrieved and destroyed over 4,000 decommissioned, illicit, and unserviceable weapons from agencies, from organizations, including those that are retrieved from criminal elements across the nation.”*
“We have also been able, essentially, to place Nigeria on the global stage map on the fight against illicit small arms and light weapons. And recently, the Director General and some members of the Centre attended a meeting in New York, organized by the United Nations, on how to curtail the excessive possession, illegal possession of light weapons and small arms in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
DIG Kokumo retired backed the ongoing introduction of state police describing it as a solution to insecurity.
“Nigeria is a big country, and we are so diverse. Our peculiarities are quite different. You know, the security situation in the Northeast may differ from that of Southeast. That of Southeast may differ from that of Southwest. And the best way to handle the security situation is to be handled by those who are domiciled in that area, who are conversant with the challenges, who know the terrain, who know the culture and the traditions of the place.”
“It is in my candid opinion that introduction of state police, if well managed and utilized appropriately, will contribute greatly to bringing down the security situation in Nigeria.”
