The Coordinator of the National Center for Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, North West Nigeria, 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 formalize the center as a Commission has already passed through relevant processes at the National Assembly.
The Coordinator who spoke during a courtesy call on the executive members of the 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 Northwest in particular for cooperating with the center, even as he sought more support for effective activities of the center.
“The essence of our visit to NUJ here is to further solicit your cooperation, though the cooperation has been there, the media has been playing a vital role since the inception of this center. Media has been playing a 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 a lot of security agencies, traditional rulers, civil society organizations, associations, and even religious leaders to strengthen relationships.”
AVM Muhammed explained that 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 society.
“It was established on the 1st of May, 2021. The center is domiciled in Abuja 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.”
“So far, so good. We have achieved so much in the area of the 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 arms and ammunition were collected from within seven states across the Northwest zone. The collections were made through kinetic and non-kinetic operations and have been destroyed.”
In her remarks, NUJ Chairman, Asma’u Yawo Halilu, assured the officials of the agency of continuous media cooperation.
“We have heard you and your demands. As Journalists, we are also critical stakeholders, so we 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 strengthen collaboration with you and your organization. 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.”
