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The Director General of National Taskforce on Small Arms, Light and Chemical Weapons (NATFORCE), Dr. Emmanuel Okereke, has raised alarm on alleged stockpiling of ammunitions by some state governors and other political players ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
Raising the alarm on Tuesday in Abuja at a press briefing, the NATFORCE boss said the alleged stockpiling of ammunitions by desperate political players ahead of the elections, was facilitated by the porous nature of our border and non existence of a specific body to tackle the menace.
“Due to lack of a legally established specific body or commission as obtainable in 14 out of the 16 countries in the West African Sub region, all manner of ammunitions have been illegally brought into the country ahead of the coming elections by high class political players, including some state governors,” he said .
According to him, for Nigeria to effectively tackle the menace of proliferation of ammunitions in the country with its attendant crimes, a Commission for the Prohibition of Illegal importation of Small Arms, Ammunitions and Light Weapons and other related matters , must be established as already done by other west African countries ,except Nigeria and Gambia.
The Commission, he added, was recommended for all West African Countries through a resolution passed to that effect by the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) in December 2017.
“Unfortunately, while 14 out of the 16 member sub regional body have complied, Nigeria and Gambia are yet to do the needful in that direction,” he queried.
He further explained that before the ECOWAS’s resolution, a bill for the establishment of such commission has long been sponsored by his outfit called National Taskforce.
