The Defence Headquarters on Thursday, 24 October, 2024 explained how non-state actors have been obtaining arms.
According to the military high command, the Libyan conflict and instability in the Sahel have allowed arms to flow into Nigeria, exacerbating the country’s insurgency and terrorism crisis.
The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, disclosed this in response to allegations made by the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, who had said a sizable number of illicit arms used to commit crimes in the country originally belonged to the government.
Ribadu accused soldiers and policemen of selling weapons to criminal elements in the country.
However, while fielding questions from journalists, Buba attributed the availability of these weapons primarily to the Libyan and Sahel crisis.
He said, “To your question about the proliferation of arms within our country, and the allegation that some of those arms are from security forces. This is what I can tell you about it. When we talk about proliferation of arms, first you have to look at what happened in Libya years ago and in the Sahel.
“Now, this gave the opportunity for arms to get into the wrong hands and then filtered into our country, which worsened the issue of insurgency and terrorism that we were faced with in the country. That is one. “
Buba also stated that another way terrorists have been getting their arms is by attacking security agencies and carting away their rifles.
He said, “Two, is from the textbook. The textbook tells you that part of the ways insurgents and terrorists get arms is to attack security forces and take arms from them. This is a textbook, meaning that it is proven all over the world. So if it has happened here in Nigeria, it is not a surprise, as we have seen that several of our troops have been ambushed or killed and their arms taken.”
Buba, however, said the military has consistently responded to such incidents with decisive countermeasures.
“But what we have done is that in every such instance, we have made the terrorists pay a greater price than we have been forced to pay in such circumstances,” he said.
