Stakeholders across broad spectrum of the society in Cross River State have expressed concerns over the proliferation of illicit arms and light weapons in the hands of wrong persons and subsequently adopted new approaches to check and control the situation.
The stakeholders which included market women, traditional and religious leaders, youths’ organisation, media practitioners, civil society, trade unions as well as security operatives were assembled in a one-day workshop organized by the National Center for Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, South-South zonal office in Calabar.
Speaking on the theme of the workshop, “Whole Society Approach in combating the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons in Nigeria, the guest of honour and Special Adviser to the Cross River State Governor on Security, Major General Okoi Obono (Rtd) noted that the small arms and light weapons in the hands of the wrong persons is one of the ills of the society that needs to be fought with in other to free our society.
He said: “If there is a fight and you are without a weapon, when you tired you would stop the fight but if you have a weapon, you may be charged to fight on. So we need to free our society of the situation.”
He said for the state government, a lot of initiatives have been put in place working with the various ministries and MDAs by way of their policies in synergy with the office of the Security Adviser to make sure that crime is combated.
“Like it’s rightly said, the society also has a role to play in the whole exercise. We have carried out a lot of sensitization and advocacies in all the eighteen local government areas in the state.”
He maintained that the security agencies rely much on information and tip off that help identify hideouts of such arms and weapons in the state. Adding that weapon factory that was unraveled in the Akamkpa local government area of the state was based on a tip-off.
Also speaking, the Zonal Coordinator of the National Center for Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, South-South office, Major General Martins Obot (Rtd.) disclosed that the office has been able to retrieve and destroy over 3000 weapons of different sizes and shapes. Including AK47 raffles, general purpose machine guns, propel granites, locally made single and double barrels guns, some cut to size. We have also retrieved a large quantity of ammunition; more than 20,000 so far. We have carried out the destruction exercise and we are sure that other exercises for destruction will take place when due.
Dr. Ndifon Neji Obi, a Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Calabar and coordinator of Peace and Conflict studies, emphasized the appropriateness of an intervention, such as the one carried out by the National Center for Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons.
This, he said is particularly relevant now, as the federal government strives to create conditions where negative energies can be redirected towards peace resources, according to the guest lecturer in the workshop.
He noted that most conflicts in communities across Nigeria are facilitated by the availability of small arms and light weapons.
He said that bringing stakeholders together to build consciousness is a critical point, adding thta an appropriate foundation for ensuring such weapons are laid off in communities, by the communities.
He said the theme of the workshop emphasized on “Whole Society approach which involves the family, the churches, schools, and various offices.
“It therefore means as individuals and as entities we have an important role to play. If collectively we put are different roles together, the efforts to free our society of illicit arms and light weapons will be achieved”, he said.
He emphasized that the exercise to free society of illicit small arms and light weapons is everyone’s business to share information with the Center for Control,
He disclosed that all the communities that frequently get into the communal clash in the state may have their armory where they keep and hide their arms and ammunition, therefore there must be community engagement and dialogue to achieve the goal of freeing the society.