The Minister of Defence retired Major General Bashir Magashi has declared total support for the National Centre for the Control of Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) in the discharge of its tasks to halt illegal weapons in circulation.
General Magashi stated this when a 7- man Management Team of the National Centre of the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, led by its Pioneer National Coordinator, retired Major General Aba Dikko paid a courtesy call on him at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters, Ship House Abuja.
He tasked the leadership of the Centre to ”sanitise the National Security Landscape by checkmating illegal movements, manipulations and management of Small Arms and Light Weapons in the country in compliance with its mandate and International conventions.”
The Minister applauded President Muhammadu Buhari for the establishment of the Centre and for the well deserved appointment of General Dikko, a former Commander of OPERATION LAFIYA DOLE now OPERATION HADIN KAI as the National Coordinator.
He pledged the support of the Ministry to synergise efforts in stopping the effrontery and the parity in Weapons handling between the State Actors and Non- state actors.
The National Coordinator of the National Centre of the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSLW) Major General Muhammed Dikko (retd) who had Served under General Magashi in ECOMOG, Liberia, solicited the support of the Minister towards stabilising the operations of the new outfit.
According to a statement by the Special Assistant to the Minister of Defence on Media and Publicity, Mohammad Abdulkadri, General Dikko said the Centre which is presently undergoing considerations by the National Assembly to transform it into a full fledged Commission promised that he would be focused in pursuing its mandate.
Going forward in the discharge of the key functions of the Centre, he said ”the NCCSALW is leveraging Multi – sectoral and Multi – stakeholders in implementing all National, UN and ECOWAS Plans of Action on the control of Small Arms and Light Weapons.”
He disclosed that plans to mainstream the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons into National discuss are on going as efforts to put in place streamlining mechanism for sharing of Weapons by security agencies as well as the establishment of a data base to checkmate proliferation and missing of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) are in the pipeline of action.
According to him, ”these strategies are aimed at changing the narratives of impunity, and the audacity of the misusers of Weapons in the country.”
The National Centre of the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons was established on May 3rd, 2021 by President Muhammadu Buhari following the disbandment of the erstwhile Presidential Committee for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons and the subsequent appointment of Major General AM Dikko as it’s National Coordinator
