Abdulrahman Dambazau, the Minister of Interior, has blamed the flow of weapons and other criminal activities in West African on the instability in Libya, a country in North Africa.
According to him, “The proliferation of firearms is a big challenge in this sub-region, particularly because of the flow of firearms from unstable countries, like Libya. After Muamar Gaddafi, Libya went into conflict and it is still in conflict. Some of the weapons used in the country were trickling down through Mali, Niger and others.
Abdulrahman Dambazau
“We are here because it is a regional issue. It is an issue that has to do either trans-border criminal activities, smuggling and terrorism. A country or a security agency cannot deal with these crimes on its own. This is the reason we have come together as a sub-region to assess the situation and deal with it accordingly.”
The minister said this on Tuesday at the 16th annual General Assembly of West African Police Chiefs Committee (WAPCCO), held in Abuja.
Place Your Advert here
The security chiefs, under the aegis of WAPCCO, regretted that its current structure makes it difficult for it to perform its roles optimally.
WAPCCO Chairman and acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu affirmed the challenges facing the body. “We are having security challenges in the whole of West African sub-region and there is need for police chiefs and other heads of other security agencies to come together to see how we can bring down the level of crime within the sub-region.”
“If you look at the 15 countries in the West African sub-region, you will see that they have one challenge or the other. We know that in Nigeria, we have challenges that involve kidnapping and we know that arms and ammunition are coming from outside the country but within the region. There is need to stop the influx of arms and ammunition within the country.”
Adamu however, called for the review of the body status in order guarantee the regularity of WAPCCO’s thereby enhancing the dynamism and effectiveness of the Committee.
