The National Task Force Against the Importation
of Illegal Arms on Wednesday in Abuja said it had uncovered an island
where arms and ammunition were stockpiled.
The task force also accused the Nigerian Customs
Service and other security agencies of aiding the importation of small arms and
light weapons into the country.
Director General of NATFORCE, Chief
Emmanuel Okereke, who raised the alarm at a press briefing, alleged that
security agencies were frustrating their activities.
The task force, which is the product
of a public-private partnership between the importers association and the
Federal Government was set up on July 16, 2010 by the office of the National
Security Adviser to curtail the proliferation of small arms in the country.
Okereke said, “We have unearthed an island where
a large cache of arms and ammunition are stockpiled and we will need a combined
team of Police and the Army to launch a successful raid on the place. You
people will soon hear of it and you will be surprised at the cache of arms we
uncovered and there are very highly-placed individuals behind it.”
He added, “We have come to understand that the
cause of seemingly intractable security crisis in the country is as a result of
neglect of roles by some members of the security agencies. Several
criminal activities have taken place because security agencies are not doing
what they were supposed to do.
“The Customs have been trying to frustrate us
from carrying out our work because they have been compromised by those who
engage in arms deal.
“This is not a matter of interest. We want to
liberate Nigeria from the stranglehold of criminals. We are ready to do all we
can in order to safeguard our lives.”
Okereke, who is also the National President of the
Importers Association of Nigeria, said the group’s initial cordial relationship
with the police later went sour.
This, he said, happened when the task force
arrested oil bunkerers in Benue State suspected to have links with some top
policemen.
Accusing the Customs of frustrating the efforts
of the team, he therefore called on the Presidency to caution officers and men
of the NCS.
However, the Deputy spokesperson for NCS, Mr.
Joseph Attah, disagreed with the NATFORCE boss.
He said, “I will not join issues with him but if
somebody will sound that way, one thing is clear that such a person is not
current with the level of development in the Customs. The man is not in tune
with what is happening in our ports and borders. May be, the man is still
thinking that the Customs of today is still the Customs of yesterday where
manual processes are involved.
“Today, most of our operations are electronic.
May be he is not current with the process of clearance. As human beings, if he
is talking of people passing through unapproved routes, those are some of the
challenges which the NCS is dealing with appropriately.”
But to say that NCS has compromised is the
most unfair allegation.”
Compass
No comments:
Post a Comment