The National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, yesterday disclosed that a sizeable number of illicit arms being used to commit crimes in the country belonged to the government, stating that such were being transferred to the terrorists, bandits and other non-state actors by security agents.
Ribadu, who condemned those unpatriotic acts, also rained curses on the security personnel who facilitate the movement of weapons to terrorists, saying that any officer caught in the act going forwarded would regret the action.
He spoke at the Muhammadu Buhari Cantonment, Giri, Abuja, during the arms destruction exercise organised by the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW).
Daily Trust had exclusively reported how illicit weapons worth billions of naira found their ways into the country 23 times within seven years, with whereabouts of many of them unknown.
2,400 obsolete, unserviceable recovered illicit arms burnt
Also on Thursday, at least 2,400 unserviceable, obsolete and recovered illicit arms were destroyed during the exercise which had in attendance the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, other members of the top echelon of the military, as well as other stakeholders.
Speaking before he set the illicit arms ablaze, the NSA stressed that the weapons ended up in the hands of non-state actors due to corrupt elements within the security agencies, insisting that the government would do everything possible to ensure that the country is safe.
He said: “Without too much talk, people know that things are changing in our country. What we’re doing here is very symbolic because it matters a lot. You see these things we’re destroying, is the cause of most of our problems; they are the tools of violence.
“They are tools the cowards, bad people, the evil, will take and through their own cowardice, use to terrorise, to intimidate, to interfere with our lives, to stop us from going about our normal lives. If you’re in your vehicle, they will put a gun, stop you and say ‘gerrout’ and take you.
“They go into your house, shoot, kill, destroy and take what does not belong to them. They call themselves bandits. They take control of all our ungoverned spaces. They kidnap people. They can’t do all these without these terrible things. The same thing, whether you call them IPOB or Boko Haram, these are the things facilitating it.
“But we have to find a way of putting a stop to this, we must if we want to live in peace. If we want to recover our country and live in peace and stability, this type of things must stop. I have been in this job for too long, almost 40 something years of my life.
“The worst human being is a policeman or a soldier who will take arms from his own formation and sell it or hand it out for the bad people to come and kill his own colleagues; you’re the worst human being, you’re evil, you’re worse than a kidnapper, you’re worse than a Boko Haram. It happens and it is happening,” he said.
‘Many weapons used by terrorists belong to FG’
Speaking further, the NSA said, “a sizeable number of illicit weapons in our own midst originally belong to the government; people take it and sell it. It is terrible; we have to stop it.
“We must fight these people, we must stop it. But there are also these people, merchants of death, and merchants of evil from outside this country. They manufacture these weapons all over and you bring it to this poor part of the world so that we will kill ourselves. They are there; shame on you.
“You make money, you make blood money from this part of the world. Look at how they have just destroyed our lives. God will punish you all. Look at what is happening in the Sahel – Niger, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso. No part of the world is going through what they are going through.
“The only thing they bring to them is arms and weapons to kill themselves. They don’t want to bring technology for us to improve our lives. What everybody is doing is to come and sell arms to us”, he said.
The NSA, however, said the military and other security agencies would not shy away from securing the country against the merchants of death by all means possible, adding that the present leadership the country would overcome all its security challenges within the shortest possible time.
“We are not going to relent. They think we are jokers, we are not. We know what we are doing and I can assure you that with the leadership we have today in our country, with the set of people in-charge, we have hope.
“Just give us time. It will change. The proliferation of small arms and light weapons remains a major threat to our national security. We will fight it. We will secure this country”, Ribadu further said.
Removing decommissioned arms from circulation will reduce risks, attacks – Centre
Earlier, the Director-General of NCCSALW, Johnson Kokumo, a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police, said the exercise was in line with the provisions of Article 17 of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons as well as the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons.
Kokumo said the exercise marked a significant step in the ongoing fight against the proliferation of illicit weapons in the country, but also serves as a “clear testament of the federal government’s determination to safeguard national security and foster peace across the nation and the West African sub-region.”
According to him, the challenge posed by the proliferation of small arms and light weapons is one of the major threats to peace and security in the country and the West African sub-region.
“These weapons have been mopped up by the military, police and other security agencies across the country. By permanently removing these arms from circulation, we reduce the risk they pose to our communities and send a clear message, and that is, Nigeria will not tolerate the illegal trafficking and possession of small arms and light weapons.
“It is also important to state that the national centre has in its custody some recovered, captured illicit small arms and light weapons still undergoing tracing as well as investigations and legal processes. These include the illicit weapons handed over to the centre by the Nigeria Customs Service.
“These weapons’ categories will be destroyed upon completion of the proceedings during subsequent routine destruction exercises. Today’s destruction exercise, which will be conducted in two phases, is not just a symbolic act. It has tangible security indications as it removes thousands of illegal weapons from circulation”, he said.
Arrest, prosecute criminal officers, expert tells FG
In an interview with our reporter, a security sector reform expert, Chukwuma Ume, said the trend would continue if there is no decisive punishment.
“What this means is that the presence of bad eggs in sector has become the norm, rather than the exception. It is a reflection of institutional decay and systemic failure of the country.
“It used to be the minority breaking the rules but now, if it is becoming the majority, it means people have lost hope and faith in the country. But I will say that should be further interrogated.
“Let us know what percentage before we begin to argue that the minority bad eggs have overtaken the majority of the hardworking innocent Nigerian officers.
“We need to take very concrete and decisive steps in curbing that. We need to seek punishment and prosecution,” he said.
