2019: Police to destroy 36,000 illegal arms, ammunition

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the Police have set up a committee to destroyed 10,000 illegal arms and 26,000 ammunition recovered from members of the public.

The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Idris, who set up the committee on Thursday in Abuja, during the monthly meeting with senior Police officers, said that the arms were recovered during the mop-up operations of illegal firearms and prohibited weapons announced by the IGP earlier this year.

According to the IGP the committee which would be headed by the DIG in charge of Operations, Habila Joshak has representives from United Nations Organs, ECOWAS and Presidential Committee on Prohibition of Small Arms and Light Weapons (PRESCOM). Members of the Committee are expected to destroy the weapons before the 2019 general election.

The IG during the meeting warned that the police would slam sanctions on Commissioners of Police found wanting in prevention of crisis. He however, admonished the commissioners to be proactive in dealing with crisis adding that much is expected from them before, during and after the general elections.

“The Government and the people expect much from us in ensuring security and safety of all Nigerians throughout the country as we go into the 2019 General Election.

“The Force will no longer tolerate laxity on the part of any commissioner of police who fails to be proactive in dealing with crisis and other violent crimes in their Area of Responsibilities (AOR).

“We have to do more in ensuring adequate security throughout the Country from now on to the election and beyond,” he said.

Also speaking on the disturbing protests by the members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) otherwise known as Shiites in Abuja, the IGP described the actions of the sect members led by the detained Ibraheem El- Zakzaky, as un-Islamic.

The IG said “Most of the El-Zakzaky Islamic Movement of Nigeria members were arrested with hard drugs in their possession and these are people that claimed to be Islamic. This makes us to start thinking and questioning them.

“These youths have been used to cause havoc and I think the group should just be called El-Zakzaky because I don’t see anything Islamic about them.

“These are people who are trying to bring problem of security to the country and the strategies applied by the Police was the best.

“I think our actions are commendable because our confrontation with them has not led to any death and that was because we were trying to avoid using too much force in tackling the situation.

“Our repsonse has to be measured because these are Nigerians who are misguided. So we need to apply strategies to handle them.”

The IG also informed the public that many of the sect members have been arrested and will be charged to court for terrorism.

Innocent Odoh, Abuja