Magnus Eze, Abuja
The Federal Government has given a committee three weeks to work out modalities for the establishment National Small Arms Commission 12 years after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons came into effect.
This was as the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)-Women Network (Nigeria) in collaboration with NINGONET for Humanitarian Development Response Initiative blamed the proliferation of small arms and light weapons across the country for the increasing wave of conflicts in the land.
The committee, headed by a retired Army general, according to Minister of Defence, Brig.-Gen, Mansur Dan -Ali (rtd) would recommend how illicit arms in circulation could be mopped up.
Speaking at a security forum, the minister said, “It’s part of my ministry’s responsibility to control small arms. It was done initially by the Presidential Committee.
“Now, through the intervention of the Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he has agreed to upgrade it to a commission; whereby there will be a very knowledgeable and committed person that we will entrust this commission that will help in assembling or collecting these arms that are in the hands of criminals across the country.
“The committee is working. A retired General is working on it with all the stakeholders from other security agencies. We have given them about three weeks to come out with modalities on how these things should be done.”
Meanwhile, IANSA Coordinator, Ms Mimidoo Achakpa, regretted that Nigeria was yet to domesticate the ECOWAS Convention, stressing that only a national commission would effectively address the issue of arms proliferation in the country.
Achakpa’s words, “The country is yet to establish commission for the control of arms; other countries within the ECOWAS sub-region have established their national commissions. Why is Nigeria which is seen to be the Big Brother dragging its feet from one committee to another?
“I had raised the question of the role of the Presidential Committee at a forum with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. We have so many arms in circulation in this country; and one of the elements in the ECOWAS convention is the control of our borders.