TASK FORCE ON SMALL ARMS DG ALLEGES THREAT TO LIFE

The Director General of the National Taskforce to Combat Illegal Importation of Small Arms, Ammunitions and Light Weapons (NATFORCE) Dr. Emmanuel Osita Okereke has petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan over an alleged abduction and illegal detention by the National Security Adviser (NSA) Col. Sambo Dasuki (Rtd) who he said conspired with the Chairman of the Police Service Commission and former Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro. Okereke also alleged that the NSA and Okiro have vowed to ‘annihilate’ him by whatever means possible, including branding him a terrorist as excuse to ‘put him away.’
In a letter dated 23rd December 2013, a copy of which this paper obtained on Tuesday in Abuja, Okereke who is also the National Chairman of African Liberation Party (ALP) told Jonathan that his problem with both the NSA and Okiro originated from a conflict of interest by some officers of the Nigeria Customs Service who he said are not happy with the exposures NATFORCE was making concerning the proliferation of arms and other illegal products in the country.
According to him, following government’s concern over security threat posed by proliferation of small arms and light weapons into the country, the Federal Government had set up NATFORCE which was inaugurated on 16th July 2010 to function as a public- private partnership initiative between the Federal Government and Nigerian Importers Association to work in collaboration with security agencies to carry on the fight against illegal importation of small arms and light weapons among other such illegal businesses. He stated that the setting and operational activities of the Task Force gulped billions of Naira being funded solely by the Importers Association with several documents attached to buttress his claims.
The Taskforce which he said has personnel in all states of the Federation has recorded several achievements in the area of security surveillance, with information passed to appropriate quarters as contained in its operational mandate. Some of the achievements include: Discovery that Nigeria has 18 border states out of which just a few are manned by security agencies while others are porous and therefore safe haven for smugglers to do illegal deals; monitored on October 2010 a fully- loaded truck of arms and ammunitions en route to Nigeria from Ghana which they handed over to the then Commissioner of Police in Anambra State; Handover of arms and ammunition recovered from illegal dealers going from Benue to Enugu January 2011; arrest of sea pirates carrying dynamites which were handed to Rivers State Police Command; among many others In all these, he said his men were offered bribe with huge sums of money which they refused to accept.
But some officers of the Nigeria Customs Service, he said, are not happy with these successes because they see NATFORCE as a threat to their corrupt tendencies and therefore determined to frustrate the body. For Example, he said NATFORCE on 11th October 2010 through its agents monitored, identified and listed 92 containers on board a vessel Kota Nazar Voynzro17 which they identified to be carrying contraband goods and small arms, ammunitions and light weapons. Having made the report to the Nigeria Customs Area Controller Area 2 Onne Port Harcourt through a letter, NATFORCE requested to be part of the inspection of the containers to insure transparency but Customs refused, fearing that NATFORCE would expose any shady deal. It was from that point that the Customs had marked NATFORCE as enemy No.1 that must be destroyed.
It was on the basis of that according to Okereke that the Customs authorities wrote a unilateral letter to the Ministry of Finance demanding the disbandment of the NATFORCE following which he said the Minister of Finance on 5th January 2011 wrote a letter copied to the Inspector General of Police that the body should be disbanded. NATFORCE however went to court to challenge that order for its disbandment with a Federal Court Abuja ruling on 30th April 2013 that the body was legally set up and should be allowed to continue its operations. Okereke as the Chairman of NATFORCE therefore wrote to all security agencies intimating them of the ruling. He as well wrote a letter requesting to see the NSA in order to brief him as well as seek for better ways of working with his office, a request that was granted by the NSA with a date given to him to see the NSA without him knowing that the NSA had set a trap for him. On getting to the NSA’s office on the appointed date, Okereke was arrested by the Commissioner of Police Operations from the Force Headquarters.
From that day, Okereke said he has been subjected to all manners of investigation from the EFCC, ICPC, the Police and Customs and being humiliated with over 20 day of detention in disobedience to a court order which directed that he should be released. Apart from series of detention and psychological torments, Okereke said he receives several phone calls on daily basis from people who claim to be working with the NSA threatening to ‘annihilate’ him and any person identified as working with the NATFORCE and some of these people even trail him wherever he went.
On the involvement of former Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro who is currently the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Okereke wrote that he was the person charge of Finance, contact and mobilization of the body when Okiro as the then Chairman of the NATFORCE and that the two of them had disagreement over none availability of funds.
“After about three hour Okiro called and said he would resign as Chairman of the National Taskforce on grounds that the National Security Adviser and Customs had instructed the then IG to disband us. I told him that we would resist such moves by the above agencies to disband because we had documents signed by the Federal Government and Customs as to the formation of the National Taskforce. It was after that that Sir, Mike Okiro swore that he would not live to see the National Task Force become a success. He had series of clandestine meetings with the Customs of which we know a lot of water have passed under bridge,” Okereke said.
Source: Leadership