Director-General of the National Taskforce (NATFORCE) on the prohibition of illegal importation of small arms, ammunition and light weapons, chemical weapons and vandalism, Alhaji Baba Mohammed, has backed the House of Representatives on its legislative process aimed at tackling small and illegal arms proliferation in the country.
He said this while making a presentation during a public hearing on a Bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of the Nigeria National Commission against Proliferation of Small Arms and Ammunition to combat the proliferation of small arms in line with ECOWAS states’ Convention on small arms.
Mohammed, who described the menace of small arms proliferation in the country as alarming, attributed the spate of banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes as fall out of illegal arms that have found their ways into wrong hands.
“Over the years, the Taskforce has tried its best to combat this ugly menace but due to increased demand for and supply of small arms and light weapons, it has been difficult to be achieved.
“It is also pertinent to note that the operational efficiency of the Taskforce has been substantially affected, due to weak institutional and legal framework to effectively curtail the spread of these illegal firearms in the country,” he said.
He said recent accounts indicate that Nigeria is awash with small arms and that large quantities of these illegal weapons are found in illegal hands in the nook and cranny of the country.
“Hence, the need to have a robust institutional and legal framework to nip in the bud, this hydra-headed monster, which is seen as a great threat to peace, unity and progress of this country.
“These issues, among others, are what this Bill is contemplated and intended to solve.
“As such, efforts should be geared towards the entrenchment of deliberate and responsive arms control mechanisms used by the government to control arms in order to promote peace in the country”, he said.
He identified porous borders, poor logistics, poor governance and corruption; political desperation and leakages of armouries as part of factors fueling the proliferation of illegal small arms, ammunition and light weapons in the country.
Also speaking, the Executive Director, Human Resources of National Taskforce, Alaji Joseph Achimi, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for sending an executive bill to the National Assembly for the establishment of the task force.
He said the bill was in tandem with the ECOWAS protocol.
