Over 3million Small Arms in hands of Terrorists, Militants in Nigeria-Dan Ali; Says it equals 3, 866 Units in Any Military.

The federal government on Tuesday raised alarm that there are well over 3 million small arms in the hands of non-state actors in Nigeria going by United Nations projections.

Minister of Defence, Mansur Muhammad Dan Ali who raised the alarm in Kaduna, noted that the 3 million rifles in the hands of militants across the country translate to about 3,866 units of any Military using the UN standard of 776 personnel in a standard Army Battalion.

Addressing Northern Traditional Rulers Council at its expanded executive committee meeting on the dire security challenges confronting the nation and efforts to contain them, Dan Ali said, “The most worrisome is the fact that most of those weapons are probably more lethal than those in the hands of the security agencies.

He assured of Mr. President’s relentless and continuous efforts of finding lasting solutions to the security challenges saying, “He has provided an enabling environment for the Armed Forces to operate and inspire our forces to attain successes in the fight against terrorism and insecurity in the country.

Noting that the tremendous efforts and sacrifice of members of the Armed Forces have ensured remarkable success in the country, the minister said, “However, the state of the nation’s security assets has been of great concern as most of the platforms and hardware of the Armed Forces have become worn out and obsolete.

“So far, tremendous efforts have been made by this Administration to provide funds for acquisition of modern equipment for the Armed Forces to confront the current security challenges.

“The equipment and platforms procured include 35 Armoured Tanks, 25 Typhoon MRAPs, 10 Spartan APCs, 20 Armoured Guard Booths, 5 Armoured Mine Clearing Vehicles, 50 TCVs and 40 Buffalo Vehicles amongst others for the Nigerian Army.

“Also, 4 Ships, 182 Rigid Hull Inflatable and Epenal Boats, 4 Inshore Patrol Craft, 2 STAN Patrol Vessels and one Helicopter have been procured for the Nigerian Navy.

“Additionally, the Nigerian Air Force has benefited from the acquisition of modern platforms with 25 Fixed Wing Aircraft and 12 Helicopters. Several of this equipment is already in service while the new ones being procured are at different levels of production with some awaiting delivery.

The minister said, “As you are aware Nigeria is faced with a myriad of security challenges some of them includes terrorism, pipeline vandalism, armed banditry, cattle rustling, kidnapping, ethno religious conflicts, trans-border criminal activities amongst others.

“These security challenges undoubtedly pose some threats to socio-economic, political stability as well as National security of the country. The activities of militant groups have so much militarized the Nigerian society.

“ The proliferation of SALW as a fall out of crises in failed countries of Somalia, Libya and Mali make access to arms much easier by those militants. Similarly, the renegades and rebels from Mali as well as recruited Tuaregs from Niger Republic and Libya have swollen the ranks of militant groups especially in the North East and North West.

“The Sophistication of militant groups, the level of dangerous weapons in their possession and their accessibility to drugs, remain the main catalysts in their possession and their accessibility to drugs remains a main catalyst of militancy.

“As at date, the UN posit that there are well over 3 million small arms in the hands of non-state actors in Nigeria. The 3 million rifles in the hands of militants across the country translate to about 3,866 units using the UN standard of 776 personnel in a standard Army Battalion. The most worrisome is the fact that most of those weapons are probably more lethal than those in the hands of the security agencies.

“However, Mr President’s relentless and continuous efforts of finding lasting solutions to the security challenges are most appreciated.

Giving an update on the operational capability of the Armed Forces, the minister said, “The Nigerian Armed Forces has recorded remarkable successes in various operations carried out across the 6 geo-political zones.

“This has been made possible as a result of increase in operational effectiveness, procurement of platforms, robust logistics support and maintenance culture, human capacity development, enhanced research and development and better welfare and working conditions of personnel.

“Efforts are being made in terms of policy formulation, capacity building, procurement of arms/ammunition and platforms as well as other measures to ensure the operational readiness of the Armed Forces and sustenance of gains achieved so far.

“This also includes the current recruitment drive in the last 3 years, whereby up to 30,000 young able-bodied men were employed by the Armed Forces. The restrain on the recruitment include lack of space and training facilities as well as time line”.

Dan Ali continued-

EXTRA-BUDGETARY FUNDING OF OPERATION LAFIYA DOLE

The operational responsibilities of the Armed Forces has no doubt been increased considering the upsurge of security challenges such as insurgency, militancy, kidnapping, herdsmen-farmers clashes and Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) activities amongst others in Nigeria.

Modern platforms/equipment is therefore required to cope with the current security challenges.

It is worthy of note that since the outbreak of insurgency in the North East, the Armed Forces has expended a large percentage of its weapons stock holding in the fight against the insurgents. Hence, the weapon stock of the Armed Forces has greatly depleted.

It is also pertinent to note that budgetary appropriation to the Armed Forces has not been adequate to procure required arms, ammunitions, platforms and equipment for the Armed Forces to consolidate on the gains recorded.

Hence, the need to source for special intervention funds to address these exigencies issues of procurement for the past 3 years.

We are all living witnesses to the recent National Assembly proclamation of trying to impeach Mr. President for the extra One Billion Dollars for the procurement of arms and ammunitions for the Armed Forces to aid its fight against terrorism in the North-East and other insecurity in the country.

CURRENT ARMED BANDITRY CASES IN SOME PARTS OF THE NORTH WEST STATES ESPECIALLY IN ZAMFARA/KADUNA STATES

The security situation in some States in the Northern part of the country, namely Kano, Jigawa, Niger, Kebbi, Sokoto State is relatively peaceful.

However, some of the potent threats that have the capacity to truncate the relative peace include among others persistent Armed Banditry, kidnapping, hostage taking and cattle rustling, this have continued to be very serious security challenges in the states in particular and the country in general.

These ugly trends are on daily basis claiming lives and properties of innocent citizens and have continued to be source of concern, fear, apprehension and anxiety to our law abiding citizens.

IMPACT OF THE INSECURITY IN THE STATES

Apart from the daily loss of lives and property due to the activities of these nefarious elements who declare war against the state, truly, these states are deeply feeling the impact in the following areas:
a. Citizens are perpetually in fear of being attack or kidnapped thereby hindering them to perform their lawful commercials activities.
b. Farmers in rural areas are afraid to go to their farm which is affecting the food security in the state.
c. The potential foreign investors, especially in the mining and agricultural sectors (which the state has great potentials) will not feel comfortable and at ease with the current development, hence there is possibility of these states losing huge Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
d. The continuation of this senseless violence and its distraction is affecting good governance in these states. The question is what is the way forward?

THE WAY FORWARD: INTENSIFICATION OF INTELLIGENCE GATHERING EFFORTS

There is the need for recruitment of sufficient local informants who will be procuring vital intelligence on the activities of the armed bandits; including their location, strength, leadership, vulnerability, capacity and sponsors among others.

Additionally, infiltration and penetration of the group will go a long way in providing meaningful insight on how to solve the problems.

Of course, the community leaders who are apparently living with the local communities are very much in the know about of these bandits; they know their place of abode, the weapons they acquire, and their leadership strength among others.

Pastoralists – farmers’ conflict in Nigeria have grown, spread and intensified over the past decade and poses a threat to National Security.

The conflict itself has transformed from a crisis of pastoralist to organized criminality starting from within – cattle rustling to mass kidnapping for ransom in most part of the country.

Kidnapping is a criminal offence that involves the unlawful taking and abduction of a person by force or fraud or the unlawful seizure and detention of a person against his will, with the ultimate aim of achieving some objectives, which may be financial, political, social or religious.

The first major case of abduction was reported on 11th January, 2006 of four (4) foreign oil workers kidnapped by Niger Delta militants at AE field, SPDC, Port Harcourt. The trend continued till date.

The threat which has assumed a criminal dimension with perpetrators demanding for ransom not necessarily in money has spread to all part of the country but more prevalent in the Northern East, North West, North Central parts of the country.

MAIN CAUSES OF KIDNAPPING

The causes of kidnapping include the following:
a. Availability and easy access to fire arms to kidnappers.
b. Payment of ransom by government, companies and relatives on behalf of kidnap victims thus making it an attractive business and easy way to get money.
c. High rate of unemployment and drug abuse among the youth.
d. Illiteracy and ignorance especially of security consciousness.
e. Uncooperative attitude of members of the society in reporting and providing relevant information to security agencies.
f. Absence of adequate legal instrument to cater for the handling of kidnap incidents for deterrence (need for execution).
g. Under-hand patronage of kidnappers by the community and surrogates of the highly-placed.
h. A glaring death of functional logistics and other resources that could be easily and promptly mobilized against kidnappers.
i. A direct or remote connection between drug usage and kidnapping.

MEASURES BY GOVERNMENT TO ADDRESS KIDNAPPING

Measures emplace by the Government to address kidnapping are as follows:
a. Responsive socio-economic development initiative that may effectively address drug addiction, joblessness, idleness and poverty.
b. Training and retraining of security personnel to meet the challenges.
c. Collaboration between security agencies and stakeholders on security awareness programmes.
d. Effective liaison between security agencies to eliminate rivalry and bridge intelligence information gaps that have sustained the threat.
e. Enactment of enabling laws to deter the kidnappers and compel telecommunication companies to cooperate in investigation.
f. Adequate exploitation and deployment of technology, in surveillance, forensic and ballistic investigation.

INTENSE OFFENSIVE OPERATION BY THE SECURITY AGENCIES

The need for intensified military action against the group is very vital. Foot soldiers and aerial surveillance need to be effectively employed in nooks and cranny of their hideouts with a view to flushing them out permanently.

Affected state Governments need to collaborate more with security to flush out the bandits out rightly without attracting collateral damage during the raids. While the Air Force is carrying out the raids, the foot soldiers should block and stop the bandits from escaping to other areas to cause havoc.

The recent claim by my emirs needs to be looked into. I brought out a statistics of bombardment of civilians globally thus; such unfortunate incidences are not peculiar to Nigeria alone:

The existing voluntary vigilante groups are being effectively profiled and selected on merits. The identified ones with potentials are given adequate training to effectively assist in fighting the menace.

Indeed, this group of people in every LGA in these states knows the bandits and their hideouts as well as their collaborators.

It is high time that as a nation we have special courts to give speedy trial of those arrested for terrorism, kidnapping, and banditry and cross boarder crimes.

THE ROLE OF TRADITIONAL RULERS IN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

The role of our highly regarded Traditional Rulers cannot be over emphasized in the development of our nation. Historically, the traditional institution serves as the first administrative unit of in society irrespective of what the administrative system is at the center.

As you are aware the security environment is a complex one. It has been observed that all societies, the world over, have a variety of traditional ways of managing and resolving conflicts and building peace whether formal or informal.

In the informal setting, respected Traditional Rulers, elders within family and community, clan, religion, groups and the like, exist in this regard. Traditional institutions of governance foster mutual co-operation and social conflict management and peace-building process.

The failure of contemporary Nigerian state in the past to imaginatively incorporate traditional institutions of governance in conflict management and peace has prevented its effectiveness as an instrument of grassroots governance in the evolving political and social dispensation (Vaughan, 2004:7).

The Nigeria’s security environment has continued to change over a period of time. The challenges are now becoming multiple and assuming dangerous dimensions. Hence the need for our Royal Fathers to recognize the changing needs of our security environment.

The role of securing our society is a responsibility of all Nigerians. Security management through traditional institutions has become a matter of necessity in order to address the multiple security challenges that have ravaged the nation.

I therefore request you to reactivate the traditional community policing in your various domains so that more information about criminal elements can be obtained in real time. In this regards, there is the need for the establishment of local government security council.

CONCLUSION

Nigeria is a land of contrasts and a melting pot of ethnicities, religious and cultural, political and economic power blocks. Since gaining political independence in 1960, Nigeria has made great impact on the world stage and her citizens here achieved excellence in all fields of human endeavor.

Having surmounted its numerous economic and political challenges of the past, the country has been able to forge ahead as one united entity.

The core problem is that the State administration is largely absent in rural areas in terms of its role in social and security provisioning.

There has seen a prolonged state of injustice that the herders believe they have been subjected to by bad leadership.
The violence in different part of the country is intense and the security agencies have become overwhelmed by the scale and ferocity of the atrocities.

All relevant security agencies and ministries, as well as Civil Society Groups, Non-Governmental Organizations, International Donor Agencies and the media must jointly collaborate and synergize for the successful fight against general insecurity especially armed banditry, kidnapping and other related criminalities.

Permit me to commend the efforts of Northern Traditional Ruler’s Council under the chairmanship of His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alh. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, on continued sermon to the subjects/followers bordering on issues that will engender national development and the advisory role given to policy makers in giving dividend/consolidation of democratic gains in the Nation and equally, stressing National Interest as the guiding principles at all times.

These efforts cannot be achieved/succeed without the total commitment from all affected state governors. The traditional institutions and general stakeholders in these domains must take clue to nip the situation in the bud.
Security is a shared responsibility, the recent statement made by my Public Relation Officer was not meant to discredit these august gathering of highly professional indifferent sector of science and humanities field, but to serve as warning to some community leaders and their surrogates that are bent to sabotage the effort and commitment of the Armed Forces of Nigeria towards protecting lives and properties of Nigerians.

Casting aspersions on security agencies or their leadership in the event of slightest as well as politicizing security matters will only complicate the issues but may likely slow down the tempo of fighting this scourge.

Community Policing is both a philosophical and pragmatic strategy that seeks to change management styles and day to day policing activities in such a way that it becomes both pragmatic and responsive to community needs.

Finally, the concept aims at building structures and processes that deliver proactive, intelligent, focused and quality policing service. This will ensure that the security agents view themselves as servants and not masters of the citizens, uphold their fundamental human rights and also view their role as the provision of quality policing service to every segment of the society.

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