Our Reporter
ABOUT 260 arms and 5,510 ammunitions were on Monday destroyed in Cross River State. The arms were surrendered by the Bakassi Strike Force and Khaki Boys.
The arms were destroyed yesterday at the opening of the Ecowas-European Union Arms destruction exercise at UJ Esuene Stadium, Calabar.
Governor Ben Ayade, representatives of Ecowas- EU and service commanders were part of the exercise.
Ayade called for the inclusion of the Bakassi Strike Force into the Federal Government’s Amnesty programme.
He recalled that a similar exercise was carried out by his government in 2018, where over 5,000 militants surrendered their arms, but regretted that ’till now, they are waiting to be enrolled into the Amnesty programme’.
“I would prefer that we find an alternative job for them. Let members of the Bakassi Strike Force and Khaki boys be included in the Federal Government’s Amnesty program,”he said.
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Ayade lamented that with over 32 immigrant routes in Cross River, the state has became a veritable source for harvest of arms and young men. He, therefore, appealed to the Federal Government to give the state special consideration in terms of financial assistance.
Joel Bisina of Lite-Africa, who represented Ecowas-EU, said the arms destruction was part of the mandate of the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons.
He hailed Ayade for strategically facilitating the voluntary surrender of arms.
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