The National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), under the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), has destroyed 2,809 illicit, decommissioned and unserviceable weapons recovered by security and law enforcement agencies across the country.
The destruction exercise held on Thursday at the Muhammadu Buhari Cantonment in Giri, Abuja, forms part of the federal government’s efforts to curb the proliferation of illegal weapons fueling insecurity in Nigeria, according to NTA news.
Speaking at the event, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, represented by the Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dennis Otuaro, said the spread of illicit arms remains a major driver of the country’s security challenges.
He said terrorism, insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, communal clashes and other violent crimes continue to thrive because of the widespread availability of illegal firearms.
Mr Ribadu noted that every weapon recovered by the armed forces, the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies, and every weapon permanently destroyed through such exercises, represents a threat removed from society.
