Ribadu: Why We Established Centre for Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons

•Terrorists exploit social media for propaganda to instil fear, military discloses 

•Sani says Nigeria needs improved action against terrorists, not talks 

•CSOs ask Tinubu to end killings in Middle Belt

Chuks Okocha, Linus Aleke in Abuja, John Shiklam in Kaduna and Laleye Dipo in Minna

The National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, has said the National Center for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons was established to serve as avenue to curb all methods of getting dangerous arms into the country as well as to curtail all forms of illicit circulation of weapons.

Malam Nuhu Ribadu made this known in a message to the inauguration of the permanent office of the North Central Zone centre of the organisation  in Minna, Niger State on Wednesday.

Also, the Nigerian military, has said Boko Haram, the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) terrorists and the new terror groups, Lakurawa and Mahmuda, were exploiting social media for propaganda to instil maximum fear in the minds of citizens.

This was as a former senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, has called on the federal government to step up the fight against terrorists in different parts of the country rather than focusing on a security summit.

At the same time, 22 civil society organisations under the aegis of Coalition Against Mass Atrocities in the Middle Belt had asked President Bola Tinubu to end the attacks and  mass killings by bandits in the region.

Represented by the Director General National Center for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons in the North Central Zone, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Johnson Babatunde, Ribadu said the center had become important to also ensure sustainable development.

He described the establishment of the centre in the North Central Zone of the country “as a critical step in the operational strategy to bring the fight against illicit arms closer to the people.

“The Zonal office will serve as a hub for strategic operations in the region, a centre for intelligence gathering and analysis, a platform for enhanced inter-agency collaboration and a base for community engagement and awareness programmes.”

He solicited the support and cooperation of governors across the country in the fight against banditry and other non-state actors, adding that achieving peace and stability in the country was critical to the socio-economic development of the nation.

The governors of Benue, Kwara, Nasarawa, Plateau and Kogi States in their goodwill messages  commended the efforts of the office of the National Security Adviser in the enforcement of peace in their states and called for more synergy to ensure peace and stability in the country.

Niger State Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Umar Bago, appreciated the office of the National Security Adviser and pledged to champion the creation of state offices of the agency in states in the North Central Zone of the country.

Military: Terrorists Exploit Social Media for Propaganda to Instil Fear

The Nigerian military has said Boko Haram, the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) terrorists and the new terror groups, Lakurawa and Mahmuda, were exploiting social media for propaganda to instil maximum fear in the minds of citizens.

The military noted that the social media ecosystem in Nigeria was very porous and the criminal syndicates were using it to their own advantage to spread fear.

Director of Defence, Media Operations, Major General Markus Kangye, stated this while responding to questions during the bi-weekly briefing at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja.

He also lamented that some unpatriotic Nigerians were colluding with foreigners to terrorise communities across the country.

Affirming that some of the arrested terrorists were foreigners, General Kangye stated that there were Nigerians who colluded with them to destabilise the nation.

“Terrorists, by their nature, aim to impose maximum impact on what they do in order to make the public fearful. They always want to put the public in a state of perpetual fear. Social media, as you all know, is currently unrestricted in Nigeria – one can post anything they want on social media.

“Now, some of those videos have no location, and the identities of the people are also unknown. They also use military uniforms to perpetrate these crimes on social media. Sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish between the terrorists and regular soldiers.

“Some of that footage, as real as we see it, could be old footage, and they are just recirculating it as fresh footage and using propaganda to take credit for the atrocities contained in the footage. They are never specific about their location; they just upload disturbing footage on social media.

“They do these things to instil fear in the minds of the people, but the armed forces of Nigeria remain undaunted in the face of all this propaganda and adversity. We remain focused; we cannot block them from posting anything on social media, but we will continue to take them down on the battlefield,” he said.

Responding to questions on whether the herders and invaders terrorising Benue and Plateau were foreigners or Nigerians, Kangye explained that, “When you hear them talk, you can easily decipher whether they are Nigerians or not. I am from the North.

“For instance, if I speak Hausa and my brother from the South-east speaks the same language, you can easily notice the difference and conclude that the second speaker is not as fluent in the language. There are variations in the Hausa spoken in Nigeria and the one spoken in Niger, Mali, or Ghana.

“When we arrest these foreigners, we can identify them based on their accents and other factors. When we acknowledge that many of those terrorising our people are foreigners, truth be told, some of them are also Nigerians. Let us not deceive ourselves.

“Note that most of the violent and incessant killings we are witnessing in some parts of this country are perpetrated mostly by those who find their way into the porous borders of our country.

“But we must, as a nation, rise up to stop these things through collaboration with all relevant government institutions tasked with the responsibility of securing the country. That is why we work in a joint environment to end insecurity in the country.”

Sani: Nigeria Needs Improved Action against Terrorists, Not Talks

Meanwhile, a former senator representing Kaduna Central has called on the federal government to step up the fight against terrorists in different parts of the country rather than focusing on a security summit.

Speaking on a television programme, Sani said Nigeria has had enough talks about the spate of insecurity in the country and, therefore, needed an improvement in its approach to the war against the terrorists.

According to him, it was a known fact that the Nigerian state was faced with a war against banditry and terrorism, a war he said had been going on for over a decade.

The former Kaduna lawmaker said victory over terrorists and bandits was as important as the unity, peace, and survival of the Nigerian state.

Amid the rising level of insecurity in the country, especially in the northern part of the country where scores of lives have been lost, homes destroyed, and many displaced, the Senate had on Tuesday resolved to establish an ad hoc committee tasked with organising a two day national security summit in Abuja.

The summit is expected to include federal, state, and local governments, as well as traditional institutions, and stakeholders in the sector to develop viable solutions to the country’s persistent insecurity challenges.

CSOs Ask Tinubu to End Killings  in Middle Belt

Twenty-two civil society organisations under the aegis of Coalition Against Mass Atrocities in the Middle Belt have asked President Bola Tinubu to end the attacks and  mass killings by bandits in the region.

Addressing a press conference in Kaduna, spokesperson of the group and Executive Director of House of Justice, Gloria Ballason, expressed deep concern over the deteriorating security situation in the geopolitical zone.

The group condemned the persistent killings in Plateau, Benue, Nassarawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Borno, Gombe, and Adamawa states. They  called on Tinubu to consider a regional strategy to defend the endangered population in the Middle Belt.

Ballason said, to  achieve this, a co-ordinated action by Middle Belt governors and the National Security Adviser (NSA) is imperative.

“We demand an urgent collaboration among  governors of the middle Belt states to adopt a coordinated, regional security strategy and to ensure all lands forcibly seized and occupied by terrorists  are returned to rightful owners.

“We urge the presidency to not only direct the security agencies to return displaced people and communities to their lands, but also provide the executive and political backing to discharge this responsibility to prevent the sabotaging of government directives in this regard,” the group said.