Over 3,000 Recovered Illicit Weapons To Be Destroyed On Thursday – NCCSALW Coordinator

Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) through the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), on Wednesday’s evening said the centre would on Thursday destroy over 3,000 recovered illicit small arms and light weapons and associated materials.

National Coordinator, NCCSALW, Major Gen Abba Muhammed Dikko (rtd) told journalists at a press briefing in Kaduna that the seizure were made majorly from the Northwest, Southsouth, Southeast and North Central regions of the country within the past 18 months.

According to him, the arms were handed down to the centre from security agencies who are currently on the ongoing theatre of operation in furtherance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to tame the insecurity in the country.

“The seizure were from various theatres of ongoing operations. We will continue to destroy them. We have had collection from the Northwest, Southsouth, North Central and Southeast.

“In terms of categorisation, small arms are categorised by the ammunition they can fire – from 9 mm to 100 mm in calibre. The key thing is for us to be able to mob up those weapons that are capable of destruction from non-state actors.

“We have the AK47, AK 49, AA guns and even dane guns among those we are going to destroy by tomorrow. We are trying to see how we can remove not only the weapon but also the ammunition illegally brought into the country by criminal elements like bandits and terrorists.

“We don’t go to pick these illicit arms from criminals, it is what the security agencies have been able to recover that we collect. Some of them were actually seized while some were voluntarily surrendered because there is still ongoing voluntary submission which we have been following.

“I’ve not mentioned Northeast because there is ongoing mass surrendering of weapons. Borno State government is also working in that process and Nigerians will be updated at the right time”, he said.