Joint operations key to ending insecurity-Air Force Chief

From Molly Kilete, Abuja

The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, has maintained that sustained joint operations by the armed forces and other security agencies in the fight against crimes and criminalities would end the spate of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other forms of insecurity in the country.      

Amao stated this when the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), paid him a courtesy visit.

The Centre, which also paid similar visits to Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, Chief of Air staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Alkali Baba Usman, solicited their support in its effort to curb the proliferation of small arms and light weapons across the country.

The CAS urged the Centre to remain resolute until they attain success in their mission, noting that the success of the NCCSALW would equally translate to success of the armed forces and other security agencies in the fight against crimes and all forms of criminalities.

Amao further reiterated that intelligence sharing is key to the actualisation of the objectives of the Centre and, therefore, advised that the Centre should strive towards the development of structures needed to effectively create and sustain intelligence sharing between both organisations.

NCCSALW Director of Strategic Communications and Information, Group Captain Ewejide Akintunde, noted that the effective functioning of the NCCSALW would depend on the support and cooperation of the Nigeria Police bearing in mind that all activities of the Centre would be hinged primarily on the existing capacity, processes and procedures enshrined in the duties and responsibilities of the Nigeria Police.

He went further to state that the Centre seeks to galvanize the whole-of-nation support, in order to bring on board stakeholders and civil society organisations in line with the guidelines enshrined in the UN and ECOWAS protocols.  The coordinator disclosed that the NCCSALW will aggregate all weapons and related materials that have been mopped up from the society and manage the stockpile leading up to its destruction.

He said the Centre also plans to institutionalise the process of marking all weapons of security agencies and maintain a national database that would help to keep track of all small arms and light weapons in the country to ensure traceability in case the weapons fall into wrong hands.

Also, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) congratulated the National Coordinator of NCCSALW on his appointment and thanked him for the visit. He noted that the significant reduction of illicit arms flows is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders, therefore, all hands must be on deck in the fight against insecurity in the nation.