By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Defence Headquarters has explained how the conflicts ravaging Libya and the regular and unrelieved instability in the Sahel have contributed to the proliferation of arms in Nigeria.
It said the twin disorders rocking the country’s neighbouring landscape have allowed easy flow of arms into Nigeria.
The DHQ stressed that non-state actors exploited this ugly development to obtain arms which consequently exacerbates the country’s insurgency and terrorism crisis.
The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, disclosed this in response to concerns in many quarters.
It would be recalled that Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser(NDA) had at a recent event on small and light weapons said a sizable number of illicit arms used to commit crimes in the country originally belonged to the government.
But while answering questions from journalists, Buba, who did not contradict Ribadu’s position, however attributed the availability of these weapons primarily to the Libyan and Sahel crisis.
He said: “To your question about the proliferation of arms within our country and the allegation that some of those arms are from security forces.
“This is what I can tell you about it. When we talk about the proliferation of arms, first, you have to look at what happened in Libya years ago and in the Sahel.
“Now, this gave the opportunity for arms to get into the wrong hands and then filtered into our country, which worsened the issue of insurgency and terrorism that we were faced with in the country. That is one.”
Buba also stated that another way terrorists had been getting their arms is by attacking security agencies and carting away their rifles.
He said: “Two, is from the textbook. The textbook tells you that part of the ways insurgents and terrorists get arms is to attack security forces and take arms from them.
“This is a textbook, meaning that it is proven all over the world. So if it has happened here in Nigeria, it is not a surprise, as we have seen that several of our troops have been ambushed or killed and their arms taken.”
Buba, however, said the military has consistently responded to such incidents with decisive counter-measures.
“But what we have done is that in every such instance, we have made the terrorists pay a greater price than we have been forced to pay in such circumstances,” he said.
The army spokesman also said troops of the Nigerian Armed Forces killed no fewer than 140 terrorists and arrested 135 suspects across the country in the last week.
Among those arrested were a founding father of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Pius Iguh, and an IPOB commander identified as Emmanuel Onwugu.
In his address, Buba said Iguh was arrested in Orsu Local Government Area of Imo State, while Onwugu was apprehended in Abia State.
He said, “In the South-East theatre, troops at FOB Orsu conducted a sting operation that culminated in the arrest of an IPOB terrorist leader.”
