Culled from Sunnews
In the past, possession of a pistol in Nigeria was
an exclusive preserve of retired top military brass, high- ranking police
officers and few wealthy Nigerians who could afford the usually expensive
license. Then, there were armed robbers, drug barons and a few other roughnecks
who used guns illegally to carry out their nefarious activities.
But the story has changed. Not only are pistols in
wrong hands, machine guns and AK47 rifles as well as other highly sophisticated
guns are today being freely used by wrong persons at the slightest provocation.
More worrisome is the rate at which high-calibre guns are being used to settle
minor disagreements among members of road transport workers union. Guns are
also indiscriminately used when street boys engage in a brawl, and during
electioneering campaigns, hired thugs use guns to settle scores with political
opponents of their paymasters just as it is commonplace to see cult boys
brandish guns in vendetta operations. Click to read more after the cut...
Anybody who wants to own a gun, can easily access
it. In the assessment of a concerned respondent who spoke to Sunday Sun in
Lagos, access to small arms for criminals who terrorize innocent citizens in
the society has become as easy as buying popcorns from the streets.
Thus, beside the popular Awka-made pistols that were
common with criminals, high-calibre guns including Pump Action Rifles have
become common with criminals and touts.
Lagos
sources and price tags
Checks revealed that criminals and others that need
weapons for self- protection easily procure the deadly weapons from black
markets.
It was gathered that due to the growing demand for
them, Pump Action rifle that sold for about N80, 000 a few years ago, has gone
up to as much as N250, 000 and the cartridges are easily retailed in packets
and pieces.
The situation has become so bad that in some cases,
roadside roasted plantain sellers are the custodians of these weapons for men
of the underworld.
South-west
routes
Investigation revealed that guns illegally find
their way easily into the South West area including Lagos through porous border
routes. For example, they are usually brought in from Benin Republic through
such land routes as the Owode border in Ogun State and water routes to Badagry,
from where they are moved into mainland, Lagos and its neighbouring states.
It was also gathered that the guns are usually
packed in anything ranging from bags of rice and other edibles to oil cans.
The big guns such as AK 47 are sometimes unassembled
before they are packed in bags of edibles and later re-assembled on arrival at
their various destinations.
Most times, the big guns are smuggled in
one-at-a-time rather than in large numbers to beat security checks. Sometimes,
they are wrapped with polythene bags and immersed in kegs of oil that are
lacerated at the bottom and later soldered.
Porous
borders and corruption
Investigation by Sunday Sun revealed that failure of
security agents to secure the nation’s land borders has exacerbated the scourge
of illicit and free movement of deadly weapons into the country. A senior
officer of one of the country’s security agencies who would not want his name
in print said: “Our border posts are too porous. I mean air, sea and land. They
are all porous. Different kinds of guns are brought into the country through
these posts with nobody to check their inflow.” Besides, the weapons could
easily be bought in some the neighbouring countries.
Apart from the porous nature of Nigerian borders,
corruption is another factor that has contributed to the easy movement of guns
into wrong hands, and in criminal circles. The official said corrupt security
officials at the border posts that deliberately abandon their duty posts when
certain powerful gun dealers want to move in arms, further encourage the
menace.
“Do you know that sometimes when these gun runners
want to bring in guns, they would alert the security people who mount road
blocks on the routes to dismantle them or look the other way while the arms are
moved through the borders? They play along with such gun dealers because at the
end of the day, their palms are greased. “Again, I blame the government for not
paying the security agents a living wage. I believe that if the officers were
well paid, they would not easily give in to such inducement. But when a man who
has not seen N100,000 in his entire working life is offered N1million just to
go to sleep while certain people do their deadly business unhindered, what do
you expect? Do you expect the person to turn down the juicy offer and continue
to tell his children that there is no money for school fees? No, of course. The
temptation will be too much and the person will readily accept the money and
play along; it is as simple as that.
“For example, do you know it was alleged that when
Major Gideon Okar planned the coup of April 1990, the arms and ammunition which
they used came in through the borders? The security agents that were on duty
were informed and they abandoned their duty posts throughout the midnight when
the arms were being moved in. It was after the arms had passed through the
border that the men went back to their post and continued to work as if nothing
happened,” he stated.
Further checks also revealed that politicians usually
bring in large cache of arms during electioneering campaigns. They do this to
arm the boys who work for them, but after the election had been won and lost,
they fail to mop up the guns from the boys.
The politicians are often unable to recover the guns
because of their failure to fulfill their financial promises to their thugs
especially when such politicians failed in the election. The boys would in turn
hold on to the guns as compensation, thereby posing serious security threat to
the society.
Another source alleged that many Nigerians who claim
to be doing business in Cotonou, the capital of Benin Republic, and other
neighbouring West African countries are gunrunners who supply the lethal
weapons to criminally-minded jobless youth at very cheap prices. The source
revealed that guns as sophisticated as AK47 could be acquired with less than
N100,000.
He said: “I know a man who identified himself as a
motor spare parts dealer in Cotonou but he was actually a gun dealer. He is a
younger brother to one of the former local government chairmen in one of the
Southeast states. He supplied different guns ranging from pistols to Ak47
rifles, to boys in his community and other neighbouring communities until the
bubble burst. He was arrested when his dubious business dealings came to the
knowledge of security agents but before then, hundreds of guns had gone into
the wrong hands.”
Checks by Sunday Sun have also revealed that the
guns do not come in through the usually porous land borders alone. It was
gathered that they are also ferried across the high seas where the arms
traffickers normally find it less stressful to evade security agents. Recent
onslaught by security agencies that patrol the high seas, especially the
Nigerian Navy, has yielded a few arrests.
Sold
like recharge cards in Niger Delta
Our Bayelsa State correspondent, Femi Folaranmi,
reports that in February 2012, the Joint Military Task Force otherwise known as
Operation Pulo Shield raided a shrine at Ojoma creek behind Dutch Island in
Okirika, Rivers state and recovered large quantities of arms and ammunition.
Two months later, another raid at Safarogo village in Ovia South West local
government area of Edo state, the JTF arrested an ex-militant and seized from
him, a machine gun, three AK 47, nine assorted weapons and 1,812 rounds of
ammunition.
Speaking on the seizures, the JTF media coordinator,
Lt. Col Onyema Nwachukwu, assured that the security outfit remained committed,
“to mopping up all illegal arms and other dangerous weapons in the possession
of authorized persons in the region”
A
war hard to win
In spite of the raids, cordon and search operations
as well as snap roadblocks and checkpoints, illegal arms are everywhere in the
Niger Delta region. Checks by Sunday Sun indicated that the quantity and
quality of arms within the reach of illegal bunkerers is a major factor
hindering the JTF from finally closing the illegal oil business and violent
crimes in the region.
Top security sources said the quantity of arms in
the hands of criminal elements in the region from illegal oil bunkerers to sea
pirates and lately, kidnap syndicates is alarming.
Common
sources
Investigations revealed that the illicit gun trade
is a booming business in the Niger Delta due to the porous land and sea
borders. The ineffective policing of Nigeria’s borders enable arms to be
smuggled in with effortless ease by arm dealers who in turn supply them to
criminals.
A security expert who does not want his name in
print listed four sources through which guns gets into the wrong hands in Niger
Delta region and by extension Nigeria.
He explained that most of the guns used for criminal activities could be
traced to countries that have bilateral relations with Nigeria. He listed Beretta
(pistol) that is a common weapon in the United States and Italy. Also listed
was the G3 calibre that is a Germany weapon and the Russian, Chinese and South
African brands of AK 47 rifles. He noted that majority of these weapons in the
wrong hands were through security sources.
The Armed Forces that is the major importer of arms
was fingered as the major culprit because those in charge of importing the
weapons allegedly often bring in more than the required number and pass the
excess to arms dealers who in turn sell them like common merchandise.
He further identified legitimate arms dealers and
embryonic militia groups as two of the major sources of illegal arms possession
in the country.
“The legitimate arms dealer is authorized by law to
import and sell certain categories of weapons. But they use the license to
import other assorted weapons and bring them through porous borders for onward
sale to those who need it. The embryonic militia groups get their weapons
through assaults on military outposts and police stations where they get arms
they use for their criminal activities”, he said.
The fourth source according to him, are individuals
who purchase weapons through their military or security agent friends. He noted
that many military and police armouries are not effectively monitored thereby
giving room for officers to secretly trade in arms.
“It is common knowledge that soldiers and policemen
sell arms to people who need them at give-away prices. There is no
accountability at the Military and Police armouries. It has been established that the first set of
arms Henry Okah, the convicted supporter of the Movement for the Emancipation
of the Niger Delta (MEND) brought into the Niger Delta region was from the an
armoury in Kaduna”, he stated.
Yet another source of arms were the high seas where
high-scale crude oil bunkering and sales took place particularly during the
dark days of militancy in the Niger Delta. It was gathered that the major
militant groups traded crude oil for sophisticated arms and ammunition without
restraint.
Price
tags
Investigations showed that the prices of arms in the
Niger Delta vary from location to location but it is largely dependent on the
rate of manufacturing. According to a reliable security source, the failure of
the African Union (AU) and ECOWAS sub-region committees on Arms to regulate the
flow of arms within Africa and West Africa made it easy for them to be sold
like common goods sometimes, to the highest bidder particularly those who are
ready to pay cash immediately.
A security expert likened arms availability in the
Niger Delta region, to recharge cards that can be found and bought anywhere
once you have the purchasing power. According to him, the official price for an
AK47 is 1,500 US dollars but in a place like war-torn Somalia, it goes for
about 50 US dollars and it is from there and other neighbouring countries that
the arms are smuggled into Nigeria including the Niger Delta region.
Checks by Sunday Sun indicated that in the creeks of
the Niger Delta, an AK 47 can be bought for between N100, 000 and N150, 000 and
sometimes at a lower price depending on who is selling while a Beretta pistol
can change hands for N50, 000.
“The business of arms is illicit; so those into it
are secretive. But the prices of guns differ from location to location and on
the individual who wants to sell. The buying and selling of guns in the Niger
Delta is like recharge card business. The more guns the manufacturers produce,
the more the price fall. A Serbian RPG is sold for N3.5 million but arms
dealers in the Niger Delta sell it for between N800,000 and N1 million”, the
source said.
Another source also recalled that the militancy in
the Niger Delta region largely provided easy access to different calibre of
guns for many Nigerians within and beyond that region. In fact, it was
discovered that many of the waterways across the country are convenient routes
for illegal gun importation.
However, the source said although guns are
“everywhere and easier to get”, the major problem for most of those who possess
them illegally, remains how to licence the deadly weapons, thanks to existing
stringent laws. But this does not in any way reduce the danger the ugly trend
poses to national security and unity.
Prices
at a glance
Location, source and availability often determine
who gets what in the booming great but filthy gun trade in the country. For
example, some of the guns are cheaper in the Niger Delta region than in most
other parts of the country.
Below
are the average prices of some of the guns:
•AK 47 – N100,000 –N350,000
•RPG – N800,000 –N1 million
•Pump Action rifle – N250,000
•Beretta pistol – N50,000
•Awka (locally-made) pistols – N25,000
•Other foreign-made pistols (depending on the
rounds) – N60,000
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