Illicit arms: Trouble looms in Anambra as Presidency storms state
– Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons is surveying the 36 state’s of the federation
– PRESCOM is embarking on the exercise in collaboration with security agencies
– The programme manager, Dickson Orji, gave stern warning to residents of Anambra state
Trouble may be on the loose in Anambra state as the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PRESCOM) began a four- week national survey on the proliferation of illicit arms.
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Cache of arms recovered by FESTAC police, Lagos
Vanguard reports that Dickson Orji, programme manager of PRESCOM, on March 8 in Awka, the state capital, told journalists that the presidency directive to the committee was to curb the danger of illicit arms in the country.
The programme manager, who spoke through the state’s coordinator, Chris Oko, said the exercise is being carried out in the 36 states of the federation, adding that it is pertinent because of its relationship with crime.
“The aim of this survey is to ascertain the true situation of the illicit circulation of SALWs in all the states of the federation by obtaining through a representative sampling process, scientific data on the subject for the purposes of articulating a National Programme of Action, NAP,” he said.
Orji told the state’s dwellers of the designated communities where the survey would be carried out to work together with its field researchers for ultimate goal and for common good of all the citizens of the country.
According to him, the survey was being embarked on within the context of a regional survey programme initiated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Orji further explained that the exercise need the national agencies and commissions on SALW in member states to conduct their national action plan for combating the evils of proliferation in their respective countries.
The programme manager said PRESCOM is carrying out the project in partnership with a number of foreign and local consultants.
He listed the local consultants to include; the Centre of Population and Environmental Development, CPED, the University of Benin, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru, Jos and MAXPRE as the lead Statistician and Data Analyst.
Orji further asserted that each of the local consultants have zonal and state coordinators, researchers and enumerators working with them in the 36 states including the federal capital territory (FCT).
The programme manager said the acute parameters of the survey enclosed approximately 9,000 households, 300 representatives of civil society organizations and 900 law enforcement officials from different security outfits.
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Several crimes including murder, robbery and kidnapping have been carried out through the use of illicit arms. The spate of crimes in the country keeps soaring higher despite relentless efforts from security operative to curb crime and other anti-social vices.
Recall that the celebrated former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, on January 19, 2015, at a forum on the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in Nigeria, organised by the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PRESCOM), admitted that elections in the country have been marred by the use of illicit weapons, Premium Times reports.
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