The National Center for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), has said that Nigeria is accountable for 70 per cent of 11 million illegal arms and light weapons in West Africa, The South South Zonal Director of the NCCSALW, Mr Alex Ebimiebo, made the claim at the Naval Warfare Course 9 Inter-Agency seminar, organised by the Naval War College in Calabar yesterday.
Ebimiebo who presented a paper themed, “Strengthening Security Agencies Collaboration to Counter Illicit Arms Proliferation for Enhanced National Security in Nigeria,” said that the illegal arms dealings were largely responsible for Nigeria’s 2.2 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 26,000 refugees in neighboring countries.
Ebimiebo further said that arms proliferation had led to economic distortions, an increase in violence, crime, and impediment to peace building. He, however, called for concerted effort from all Nigerians to tackle the menace, saying that NCCSALW would take the fight to the society since security is the responsibility of everyone.
“As a result, everybody is a stakeholder, so as such, we need to involve the whole society in this fight and the center has a lot of programmes for collaboration with our sister agencies. ”We also have advocacy and sensitisation programmes that we take to members of the general public from time to time,” he said. Meanwhile, Rear Adm. Akinola Oludude, Commandant, Naval War College, expressed concern on the influx of illicit arms into Nigeria since 2020.
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗧𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗔𝘀 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽!
