AA group has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to consider signing the National Commission for the Coordination and Control of the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons bill passed by the National Assembly recently.
A coalition of non-governmental organizations made this call in Abuja while also applauding the efforts National Taskforce Prohibition of Illegal, Importation/Smuggling of Arms, Ammunition, Light Weapons, Chemical Weapons and Pipeline Vandalism (NATFORCE) under the leadership of its Director-General, Dr. Baba Mohammed.
The group led by Citizens Media and Development Network (CIMEDEN) made this known over the weekend in a press statement signed by its Information and Communication Officer, Mohammed Ibrahim, in Abuja.
The statement stated that, “The reason why the state of insecurity in the country is getting worse by the day is as a result of proliferation of light weapons and fire arms into and in the country without effective control.
“The positive results recorded by NATFORCE under the leadership of Dr. Baba Mohammed, which Nigerians have seen so far has convinced our coalition and of course the rest of Nigerians that the time to sign the bill into law is not only now but urgent.
The Bill was.passed by the Senate after it received overwhelming support of the Senate President, the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, as well as relevant stakeholders such as the ECOWAS Commission, Legal Services of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), Coalition of Nigeria Youths, experts and several others” it stated.
Also, the group maintained that “if the bill is signed into law and NATFORCE becomes fully and legally operational, it has the potential to generate huge revenue to tye federal treasury.
“Countries like Liberia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea are among countries that have established the Commission to stop killings, kidnappings and banditry and Nigeria cannot be an exception.
“We believe that signing the bill into law will not only help in curbing banditry, terrorism, kidnapping and related crimes, but it will serve as a source of revenue generation for the government”, the group stated.
