200m illegal arms in circulation in Nigeria – Gov Sani

Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, has raised the alarm that about 200 million firearms are in circulation in Nigeria.

Governor Sani disclosed this in a chat on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

He said the proliferation of firearms was responsible for the rising insecurity in the country, calling for the review of the firearms law in Nigeria.

“When I was in the Senate I tried to amend the Firearms Act because it is obsolete. The last time the Firearms Act was amended in Nigeria was over 30 years ago.

“The firearms act in Nigeria is not in line with the global best practices. Nigeria is the only country where you can be arrested with illegal firearms and can be taken to court and you can be released based on some charges and not imprisonment. You can pay a fine of about 50,000 naira and you can go home.

“That is why I started emphasising (firearms control) when the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC), tabled the report when I was in the senate that about 200 million illegal firearms are in circulation in Nigeria out of the 250 million in circulation in West Africa,” Sani said.

He lamented that nobody cared about the report, attributing it to the reason for the insecurity challenges currently bedevilling Nigeria.

The governor also said the menace of insecurity plaguing a large portion of the North can be put to an end by implementing state policing.

”In the last six months or thereabout, I have been insisting that we can only address the issue of insecurity if we establish state policing,” Governor Sani said, adding that ”I am happy that some few weeks ago some governors joined me in agitating for state police.”