The National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) has received 6338 arms and ammunitions, as well as 1,057 cartridges from the police that were recovered from criminals.
Handing over the items to NCCSALW on Thursday in Abuja, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Usman Baba said that the small arms and light weapons were recovered by the police in various operations across the country.
He listed the arms and ammunitions as 265 automatic rifles, 146 pump action guns, 1,909 locally fabricated pistols, 1,500 locally made single barrel guns and 98 locally made double barrel guns.
Others were 46 general purpose machine guns, 16 locally made rocket launchers, two locally made anti-craft guns, seven rocket propelled grenade, 2,358 assorted ammunitions and 1,057 assorted cartridges.
The IGP, who was represented by Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Finance and Administration, Mohammed Dan-Malam. hinted that proliferation of small arms and light weapons is a major threat to the peace and security in the country.
He disclosed that violence, banditry, secessionist movement, armed robbery, kidnapping and communal clashes increased due to the presence of small arms and light weapons.
This, he added was the reason that President Muhammadu Buhari established the NCCSALW to curb the threats of the proliferation of illegal arms and ammunition trafficking.
Baba informed that the Police, which is the lead agency in internal security, have been in the forefront of mopping up weapons from criminal syndicates and members of the public.
The National Coordinator of NCCSALW, Maj.- Gen. Mohammed Dikko (rtd), said that the centre was established two years ago with the mandate to mop up illicit arms and ammunition.
In pursuit of the mandate, he stated that the centre has been collaborating with security agencies to rid the society of the catalyst that triggers criminalities and other vices.
Dikko noted that the first collection of illicit weapon by the centre was in Bauchi State where the handover was done by the Police Commissioner in charge of the state.
The national coordinator confirmed that banditry, kidnapping cattle rustling, terrorism and other criminalities increased given the presence of illicit weapons.
He pledged continous partnership with all security and intelligence agencies in order to remove the weapons from circulation.
“What we have received today will form part of the decision making process to segregate those that are serviceable and those unserviceable.
“We will identify those that were illegally brought into Nigeria and those that were traded into the country through third and fourth parties,’’ he added.
Dikko maintained that NCCSALW is also mandated to issue serviceable weapons back to security agencies for the protection of lives and property of citizen.
He assured that the weapons would scale through due diligence, adding that the centre would seek approval and handover some of the useful arms to the police.
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