The Department of State Security (DSS) and the Nigerian Police in Gombe State have joined forces with the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), Northeast Zonal Centre, under the Office of the National Security Adviser to President Bola Tinubu, to mop up illegal arms and light weapons.
It could be recalled that the centre embarked on advocacy and collaborative visits to security stakeholders in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states last week to strengthen relationships in the fight against the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons in the country.
Speaking yesterday when the Northeast zonal director of NCCSALW, Maj-Gen Abubakar Adamu (rtd) paid him an advocacy and sensitisation visit, the director, State Security Service (DSS), Gombe State Command, Haruna Nuhu Koko, promised to support the centre effectively in intelligence sharing as well as advocacy and sensitisation.
Also, the commissioner of Police in the state, CP Bello Yahaya, appreciated the federal government for establishing the centre and expressed the Police’s commitment to submitting all the small arms and light weapons in their custody to the centre.
Earlier, the Northeast zonal director of NCCSALWA, charged both of them to be enlightening prosecutors that when judges make a judgement, such a judgement should come with the handing over of arms and ammunition to the centre for safe-keeping or onward destruction.
“When the police or any other security agencies arrest and recover small arms and weapons, they should submit them to the centre and an agency with the constitutional right to keep and destroy them as and when due.
“Collaboration with all the stakeholders will go a long way in curtailing the menace of the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in the country, thereby reducing the level of terrorism and banditry.
“The centre has been mandated by the federal government to prosecute any individual involved in the proliferation of illicit weapons in the country and we are therefore seeking more support and collaboration from all stakeholders in the Northeast.
