THE
Director General, National Task Force on Illegal Importation of Light Weapons
and Small Arms, Osita Okereke, has made a stunning revelation on the reasons
behind the increasing resort by state governors to buy or lease private jets.
‘’The governors use these jets to build up arms ahead of the
coming elections in 2015’,’ the Director-General alleged.
He was speaking on Channels Television breakfast programme,
Sunrise Daily on Monday.
“They (governors) take private jets abroad, purchase arms and
land in their state –no security man has right to search him because it is a
governor’s item. You cannot stop, you cannot search them,” he said.
Okereke was responding to questions about the availability
of arms in Zamfara State, where it was recently revealed that the state
governor plans to arm vigilance groups within the state, to address its
insecurity challenges.
No one, except members of the armed forces are entitled to carry
arms in Nigeria unless properly lincensed by the Nigeria Police.
According to the taskforce boss, “the revelation from Zamfara is
just the one we (the public) know.”
He said, “There are many governors with so many arms in this
country that the numbers of arms they are having is uncountable.
“There are so many of them in various states. These governors
have brought in arms that are uncountable.
“We have marked so many states.” He, however, failed to mention
any state, saying “it is a security matter.”
He traced huge amount of arms available in the country to
governors who arm hoodlums with the guns.
“There are millions of arms in Nigeria,” he said, adding that
they (governors) are already arming ahead of 2015 general elections,” he said.
He appealed that the government should provide the task force on
illegal importation of light weapons and small arms, with police, army and
budgeted funds because “we have informants all over the place and we need to
pay them.”
Source: Tribune
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