Insecurity: Federal Govt Rejects Plea By Nigerians To Bear Arms

The Federal Government has rejected plea by Nigerians to bear arms over insecurity, The Nation can confirm.

The Minister of Police Affairs, Dr. Muhammad Dingyadi, has rejected calls in some quarters that government should allow all Nigerians to bear arms.

This is following the recent attack on Kaduna/Abuja train where several people were killed, many kidnapped and others sustained various degrees of injuries.

Dingyadi said if allowed, it will worsen the security situation in the country.

He spoke in an interactive session with police correspondents in Abuja.

The Federal Government, the minister said, needs to minimize the circulation of firearms in the country.

His words: “Personally and officially, I will say no to everyone to carry arms. I do not support the idea of everybody carrying arms. And if you check the situation we are in now, it is so bad that we should do whatever we can to control arms carrying and to ensure that we do not allow it to escalate.

“We need to do all we can to ensure that we minimize the circulation of firearms in this country. We should restrict this to people who are supposed to carry arms, people who are trained to use them, and people who have license to use them. If you make it for the use of everyone, it will worsen the situation.

“We need intelligence to guide our operations and officers. That is why we are having drones to assist in our intelligence. We also need the support of the general public. We are improving in our intelligence. This development is of serious concern to us and every Nigerian. People are just counting the civilian casualties, they are not counting the casualties that are coming out from security agencies which are usually also enormous.

“By the time you kill one or two policemen, you do not know how many morals you have dampened. It is very important we try to ensure that we protect the lives of our men who are on duty at several locations across the country. It is only the police that are everywhere in this country. They are in every village in this country and that is why we are having casualties everywhere.

“We are showing the highest level of concern to ensure that these things are brought to the barest minimum and this we are doing through the improvement of operation equipment. If you are well kitted and you are well armed you will stand a better chance of surviving any attack.”