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From Noah Ebije Kaduna
The Coordinator, National Center for Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, North West zone, Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Haruna Umar Mohammed (Rtd) has disclosed that the center will soon become a Commission.
AVM Mohammed said the bill seeking to formalise the center as a Commission has already passed through relevant processes at the National Assembly.
The Coordinator who spoke on Tuesday during a courtesy call on the Executive members of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna State council, also added that President Muhammadu Buhari will soon assent to the bill.
He however, expressed gratitude to members of NUJ across the country and North West in particular for cooperation with the center, even as he sought for more cooperation for effective activities of the center.
“The essence of our visit to NUJ here is to further solicit for your cooperation, though the cooperation has been there, the media has been playing vital role since the inception of this center. Media has been playing vital role at the national, State and zonal levels. We want to seek further cooperation.
“This is not the first place we have visited, we have visited alot of security agencies, traditional rulers, Civil Society Organisations, associations and even religious leaders. The essence of establishing the National Center for Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons is to control the illicit flow of small and light weapons in our society, and to achieve this, the federal government deemed it necessary to establish this center. It was established on the 1st of May, 2021. The center is domiciled in Abuja to in the National Security Adviser (NSA) office to achieve its mandate. And zonal offices were created in February 2022 in order to achieve the mandate across the six geopolitical zones in the country.
“Recently there was international conference and other conferences and most of these conferences were covered by the media. I want to mention here that already the National Center for Control of Small Arms and light weapons has a bill. So far there is a bill which has passed through the two chambers of the National Assembly and it is just waiting for the President’s assent so that it becomes a Commission.
“So far, so good we have achieved so much in the area of collection of these small arms and light weapons. Precisely, in June last year, over 500 small arms and light weapons and 14000 arms and ammunition were collected in Sokoto. These are arms and ammunition and small arms and light weapons that were collected in seven States across the North West zone. These collections were made through kenetic and non kenetic operations. Some of these weapons that were recovered; those that were not useful were destroyed.
“Actually on the 24th of November last year some of the media people played vital role in the destruction of these small arms and light weapons. About 3000 arms and weapons were destroyed. It may interest you to know that the byproduct of these weapons were actually recycled for operational purposes. Some of the small arms and light weapons are used for operations by some of the security agencies. So far alot have been achieved. We are looking forward to destruction of these small arms and light weapons, very soon we will be inviting you to witness the destruction”. The Coordinator said.
In her remarks, NUJ Chairman, Asma’u Yawo Halilu, assured the officials of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) of media cooperation, saying, “We have heard you and your demands. As Journalists we are also critical stakeholders, so we are assure you of our collaboration because before now, journalists have collaborated with both military and paramilitary to project their activities to the outside world.
“So it is not new to us to strengthening collaboration with you and your organisation. We will work with you, so any time you have anything to do, you can call on us and we will oblige you effective coverage of your activities”.
