Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna state has said there are about 200 million illegal firearms circulating in Nigeria.
He revealed this when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
The governor attributed the proliferation of firearms to the increase in insecurity in the country, and urged 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“When I was in the Senate I tried to amend the Firearms Act because it is obsolete.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 N50,000 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.
According to Governor Sani, nobody showed concern about the report, saying that was why insecurity challenges were currently bedevilling Nigeria.
The governor also declared that only state policing can check the menace of insecurity plaguing a large portion of the North.
”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.”