The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has raised the alarm over the importation of dangerous weapons through camels around the Sokoto, Zamfara borders from neighbouring countries and urged the federal government to immediately deal with the situation.
The chairman of the forum’s National Executive Committee, Audu Ogbe, said members from Sokoto and Zamfara States, during its last meeting, had reported that large herd of camels were crossing into the Nigerian boarders with a lot of baggage on daily basis and there was no one checking them.
Ogbe, in a statement on Thursday, said such lapses within Nigerian boarders persist at a time when weapons of all kinds “are coming into our country and worsening the climate of terror and national uncertainty.”
Ogbe, a former minister under the current administration said: “Already, it is speculated that weapons as dangerous as Rocket Propelled Grenades, RPGs, and anti-aircraft guns are part of the cargo ferried by camels freely into our country from neighbouring countries.
“It will do the nation a great deal of good to deal with this situation immediately. The ACF is deeply worried.”
He stated that it has become clear that as victims pay ransoms to kidnappers, the money is instantly converted to more sophisticated weapons and instruments of death by the kidnappers.