Minister of Interior, retired
Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, Tuesday in Abuja held a close-door meeting with
heads of internal security agencies.
He said the meeting was a follow
up to a meeting with state governors two weeks ago over the violent conflicts
between farmers and herders in Benue and other places.
“One of the issues that came up
in the communiqué was the issue of the proliferation of small arms and drug
trafficking and abuse.
“We also found out that these two
issues are triggers to the violence taking place in this country.
“Without the firearms and drugs,
those who partake in violence would not have the courage to carry out the kind
of violence taking place in this country,” he said.
“As a follow up, I called for
this meeting so that we can examine and analyse the situation to see how best
we can deal with the situation”, NAN quoted him as saying.
Quoting the UN Regional Centre
for Peace and Disarmament, Dambazau noted that there were approximately 500
million assorted firearms in West Africa and out of this figure, 350 million
(representing 70 per cent) are in Nigeria.
He said a large consignment of
weapons had been smuggled from North Africa (in particular Libya) as a
consequence of the crises in that country.
“The situation is worsened by the
insurgency in the North-east because of the supply of weapons to the insurgents
and terrorists there.
“Likewise the supply of weapon to
the militants in the Niger Delta through exchange of stolen crude oil and
supply by politicians to deal with their opponents.
“It is very necessary for us to
secure our country and of course a more challenging aspect of that which
facilitate the smuggling of weapons, is our porous borders and this is a major
challenge to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and Nigeria Custom Service
in particular.” he said.
The minister further inisisted
said the farmers and herders’ conflicts, kidnappings, ethno-religious crises,
terrorism, armed robbery, cultism and militancy all had something to do with
weapons and drugs.
The meeting had in attendance
representatives of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Police,
Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), National Drug Law Enforcement
Agency (NDLEA), Directorate of State Services (DSS), National Intelligence
Agency (NIA), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).
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