By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
Retired Members of Nigerian Armed Forces (REMENAF), Borno State Chapter has collaborated with the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), a Federal Government Security Agency under the Office of the National Security Adviser to President Bola Tinubu to fight insurgency and proliferation of illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons across the NorthEast region.
Speaking when the group paid a courtesy visit to the Federal government security agency in Maiduguri on Wednesday, Maj-:Gen Abubakar Adamu (Rtd), the Northeast Zonal Director of NCCSALW, expressed delight and readiness to partner with the members of Retired Nigerian Armed Forces to tackle the menace of insurgency and the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons.
He said that the collaboration was necessary in mopping up Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in the Zone.
While stating the negative impact the proliferation of illicit SALW has on peaceful coexistence of the country and its socio-economic activities, Adamu pledged the Centre’s continuous cooperation with the group especially in intelligence sharing which he said, was paramount in preventing the proliferation of this SALW in the country.
“One of our responsibilities is to prevent the proliferation of small Arms and Light Weapons and to also enlighten the people. We are a multi agency department and we have the police, the DSS, and also retired military officers as well as serving military officers.
“We have been empowered to receive all illicit small arms and light weapons that have been retrieved from all the agencies and we are the people responsible to destroy them
“We are also the only organization empowered to prosecute gun runners and all the people that have been arrested in terms of dealing with small arms and light weapons”, he said.
Earlier speaking, Lieutenant Commander Bukar Kyari Aji (Rtd), Chairman of REMENAF, Borno State Chapter, promised that they would serve as a source of information to the Centre and work together to ensure that the menace of the proliferation of illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons is completely eradicated in the society.
He also explained that the purpose of the visit was to register and reaffirm their unalloyed loyalty, support and commitments to the Armed Forces and other security agencies in their fight against insurgency in the state.
Aji added that the aims and objectives of the group was to provide a platform for the veterans to connect, share experiences, support military operations through intelligence gathering and dissemination and provision of welfare to the veterans and their families.
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