Army displays 14,586 surrendered arms, bombs in Warri

NO fewer than 14, 586 weapons of mass distruction surrendered by ex-militants in Delta State were displayed by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Thursday at 3 Battalion, Nigerian Army, Effurun, Ovwie Local Government Area of Delta State.
The display, which was witnessed by the representative of the governor of Delta State, Rear Adimral John Kpokpogri (retd); Rear Admiral Stanley Ogoigbe; Delta State Commissioner of Police, Ikechuckwu Aduba; Police Area Commander, Warri, Hussein Rabiu, among others, was a product of a mop-up exercise of weapons and ammunition surrendered to the JTF and other security agencies up till March 2012.
The dreadful heaps of assorted weapons included AK47, FN riffle, MK4 (locally made), G3 Air riffle (locally made), SMG, Pistol (locally made, Pump Action, Machine Gun, Single Barrel Gun (foreign), catapults, axes and cutlasses, among others.
The ammunition include 7.62mm Secial, 7.62mm and several cartridges.
Tied to the mouth of each of the arms were red or white piece of ritual clothe by the ex-militants.
The weapons also included lethal ones like bombs, rocket launchers and dynamites which were loaded into two hilux vans and taken to bomb disposing unit for destruction.
Diffusing rumours doing the round that the Federal Government had commenced a third phase of the amnesty programme, chief Coordinator of the task force, Air Vice Marshal James Gbum, who thanked Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan for his hospitality and support towards the success of the exercise, quickly informed that no fresh amnesty programme had been declared by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Gbum, who disclosed that a significant quantity of arms were still in the hands of former militants, criminals and residual groups in the region, said that the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), which did the display of the arms and ammunition, was a product of agitations and petitions from ex-militants to the Federal Government on claims that they (ex-militants) were excluded from the Amnesty Programme despite having surrendered their arms to the JTF.

IAFT, according to Air Vice Marshal Gbum, therefore constituted to “carry out the verification and reconciliation of disarmament records as well as document the residual ex-militants who actually surrendered weapons to JTF and other security agencies in order to ensure the security of lives and properties in the region.”

Gbum, however, stated that some youths who were parading themselves as ex-militants were discovered to be lying, adding that during the course of reconciling the disarmament records, the task force discovered that the weapons surrendered by the dissenting youths were “primitive and archaic weapons such as dane guns, cutlasses and catapults.”

According to him, this category of people was not qualified to benefit from the Amnesty Programme.

Representative of the governor of Delta State, Rear Adimiral John Kpokpogri, who was accompanied by other dignitaries to inspect the cache of arms and ammunition, expressed joy for the success of the three-week exercise carried out by the task force.
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