Former Head of State and Chairman of the National Peace Committee, Abdulsalami Abubakar on Wednesday said there are an estimated six million illicit weapons circulating in Nigeria.
He spoke during a meeting of the NPC with the Nigerian Guild of Editors.
The meeting was focused on proferring solutions to insecurity in Nigeria.
According to Abdulsalami, the proliferation of illicit arms has contributed greatly to the current insecurity climate in the country.
“The proliferation of the calibre of weapons not only in our sub-region, but in general, and in Nigeria in particular, is worrying,” he said.
“It is estimated that over six million of such weapons are in circulation in our country. This certainly aggravated the insecurity and led to over 80,000 deaths and also we have close to three million internally displaced persons.”
A former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alamin Daggash said security officials must be better trained to combat crime across the federation.
“In those days, we used to train for something like 18 months to two years,” he said. “Today, some of these young people are trained for only six months. And I think that is inadequate.”
Billionaire industrialist and a member of the NPC, Aliko Dangote suggested more funding for security operatives.
“There is no way for us to continue with this sort of thing while we are underfunding the police and the military,” he said. “We are also asking them to go and recruit, so when they recruit, where are they going to find the money to pay?”
The NPC is a nonprofit founded in 2014 as a response to “emerging threats occasioned by the 2015 general elections,” according to a page on its website.
Its members include the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Kukah, among other eminent Nigerians.
