• security experts urge vigilance
Criminals are hell-bent on making Nigeria unsafe with the diverse methods being used to smuggle firearms into the country. The country is currently battling insurgents, killer herders, robbers, kidnappers and bandits using sophisticated weapons to cause mayhem across states in the country. The security agents have been able to bust some of the gangs and their methods of smuggling firearms into the country while others albeit escaped their eagle eyes. There are viral videos on the arrested criminals, documenting the strange methods adopted to smuggle in the arms
In one of the videos, one of the soldiers who apprehended a group of men of northern extraction transporting guns using motorcycles, said to his colleagues, “As dem dey pass, I fire dem. I lie down for ground and I fire dem.’’
As he spoke, he and other soldiers dismantled the motorcycles they confiscated from the suspected gunrunners. The motorcycles looked normal like others used for commercial activities. But upon scrutiny, the soldiers discovered that the special bikes were tailor-made to transport guns and ammunition undetected across states and within Nigerian cities.
With measured expertise, the soldiers pulled off the seat of one of the bikes and thereafter used a hammer, a screwdriver and scissor to rip it apart. They removed nails used by the criminals to hold the bike seat and opened it.
Discovered inside the seat were an AK-47 rifle and a fully loaded magazine. The soldiers were surprised by the criminals’ ingenuity and one of them kept shouting ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.’ Another soldier, who was equally shocked, screamed, “We think dem be mumu, dem no be mumu o. Dem go dey look us dey laugh.’’
Concealing firearms in bike seats is one of the ways criminals have adopted to escape the prying eyes of security agents.
Firearms act
In February 2018, the then Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, in a statement ordered all the commissioners of police in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to immediately commence throughout the country, disarmament and recovery of prohibited firearms, ammunition and weapons.
He stated that all firearms in the possession of suspected militias, bandits, vigilante groups, neighbourhood watch and other groups or individual(s) or bodies, whether locally fabricated, modified or otherwise fashioned to kill or can cause harm or injury to persons, security breach anywhere in Nigeria, were to be seized.
After the announcement, a Police Joint Task Enforcement Team was set up at the Force Headquarters by the Inspector General of Police, and the Commissioners of Police of all the states in the country were mandated to set up similar joint task force enforcement teams in their respective states and zones. The order was backed by the Robbery and Firearms Act (2004), stipulating that it is explicit and punishable to illegally possess or receive firearms. It appears that three years after the mop up exercise, criminals all over the nation still run wild with guns and transport them across state borders and within cities largely undetected using various concealment techniques. The case is even more palpable with the recent increase in gun-related violence all over the country.
Gun concealment tactics 
Gun concealment tactics vary from one criminal group to another. In fact, criminally-minded Nigerians continue to change techniques to beat the scrutiny of security agents around the country.
In another viral video a few years ago, five members of a trans-border robbery gang were arrested by men of the Nigerian Police Force along the Nigeria-Benin Republic border. Hidden under the seats of their motorcycles were AK-47 rifles together with two magazines fully loaded with 60 rounds of live ammunition. The suspects while confessing said they were responsible for multiple car-snatching operations and other armed robbery attacks along the Nigeria-Benin Republic border and they carried out operations disguising as commercial motorcycle operators.
This ingenious method of concealing guns is not new, there are plenty others uncovered by security agents on patrols in different parts of the country. Some of the methods are subtle while others are bizarre and mind-boggling.
For Nelson Yakubu, a robbery suspect, he and his gang devised an odd way to transport their guns undetected across states in Nigeria where they go for robbery operations. In a video recorded during their confession to the police, he demonstrated how he and his team hid their AK-47 rifles and ammunition between the car bonnet, windscreen and engine compartment of their vehicles.
According to him, they concealed their guns there to pass police checkpoints without being caught. Yakubu said he had carried out robbery operations with his gang in various states in the country and they transported their firearms with ease, stowing them away in their car bonnets.
He said, “The police have no clue that we can hide guns in such parts of a car, so it helps us to pass easily in and out of different states with our guns for robbery operations without getting caught.”
In 2020, the operatives of the Federal Operation Unit of the Nigeria Customs Service in Kebbi State intercepted a suspicious-looking truck. The spokesperson for the NCS, Joseph Attah, said when the lorry was examined, they found that it was loaded with locally-produced rice and some sacks concealed under the bags of rice. On further examination, the sacks were found to contain 73 locally manufactured guns and 891 cartridges.
In January 2017, a Federal Operations Unit Squad of the NCS, intercepted a truck in Lagos that had already been cleared by customs at the Tin Can Island ports as having “steel doors” in the 40-foot container it was carrying. However, when it was thoroughly inspected, it turned out that the truck was carrying 661 rifles.
In May that same year, Comptroller-General of the NCS, Hammed Ali, announced another seizure of firearms in the country. He said the 1,100 pump action rifles were disguised as wash hand basins for them to pass through the Lagos ports. Also, in the same month of May, 440 pieces of arms cleverly hidden in a container and about to be cleared as Plaster of Paris was discovered.
The criminal acts didn’t start recently. In 2003, members of the NCS special anti-smuggling squad intercepted a lorry carrying illegal goods, noting that the smugglers abandoned the lorry and fled into the bush when they spotted a roadblock set up by the service’s men on the road between Lagos and Benin City.
Searching the lorry, they discovered that 170,000 live bullets were hidden under empty cartons of beer and heaps of charcoal which was smuggled into Nigeria through nearby creeks leading to the Atlantic coast near Lagos from an unnamed neighbouring West African country.
Over six million arms in circulation
The Chairman, National Peace Committee and ex-Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, said in Abuja during the committee’s key stakeholders meeting in May the proliferation of all calibre of weapons was not worrisome in Nigeria but also in the sub-region.
He said, “It is estimated that there are over six6 million such weapons in circulation in the country. This certainly exacerbated the insecurity that led to over 80,000 deaths and close to three million internally displaced persons.’’
Abdulsalami urged the nation’s security agents to find a way to resolve the security challenges confronting the country.
In 2016, the then Director of United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa, Ms Olatokunbo Ige, during a security meeting, gave a startling statistic.
Ige noted that UNREC estimated that 70 per cent of the 500 million illicit small arms and light weapons in circulation in West Africa were at the time domiciled in Nigeria.
She added, “The country is awash with illicit weapons which found their way into the hands of non-state actors threatening the existence of the country, as well as lives and properties of citizens.”
The police and allied agencies particularly the Nigeria Customs Service intercepted and discovered countless methods used by criminal elements in society to conceal and transport guns within the country.
Dangerous trend
For residents in states across the country, the proliferation of firearms across the country is a cause for concern.
A resident in the Mushin area of Lagos state, Adebimpe Ogundipe, noted that guns were commonplace in the country. She said some hoodlums in the Mushin area used guns ostensibly bought by some politicians during electioneering. The guns were used to help the politicians win elections and afterwards, the hoodlums kept the guns, which they now use to terrorise residents. The situation is the same in several areas in the country.
Ogundipe added, “These days, when there’s unrest in the area, you just see young boys pull out guns from their bags and start shooting. Even with all the police checkpoints around, I wonder how they successfully move about without getting arrested. A lot of us live in fear because the boys are a threat to our peace of mind.”
A trader in the Oshodi market in Lagos State, Sunday Igbokwe, said he had seen firsthand how some criminals concealed guns around the area. He said in 2019, during a clash between some cult groups in Oshodi, he witnessed how some boys majestically walked into some shops and brought out guns. He added, “They just casually strolled into some shops in the market.’’
Another trader in the state, Helen Ogunbiyi, expressed worry about how easily hoodlums in the Oshodi area had access to guns. She said there were days when one would see boys carrying bags and walking boldly without knowing what they had in them.
Ogunbiyi stated, “Not until there is a clash, you might never know what is in the bags. It is shocking how the police have yet to uncover the gangs. During one of the many cult clashes at Oshodi, I remember one of the cultists got ambushed by a rival group with machetes and knives. The guy calmly brought a gun out from his bag and started shooting at them and they all ran away. Looking at him, you would not even know he had a gun.’’
A resident in the Aguda area of Lagos, Rachael Eze, expressed fears over what she described as gun use in the area during cult clashes. She said the Aguda area, especially the part connecting to Ijesha was rife with cult clashes every year and it was a common occurrence for cultists to fight each other using guns and other dangerous weapons.
Eze said, “I am however surprised that no lasting solution has been found to check the brazen use of guns in the area. Early this year, there was another cult clash between the rival cult groups. The boys live in the neighbourhood but I am shocked that they move about freely with guns without being detected or arrested.”
She said every day she lives in fear not knowing if there might be another fight between rival cult groups, noting that as they had perfected ways to move about freely with their guns, she did not see an end in sight for the reign of terror.
Centre for the control of small arms and light weapons
In May this year, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) approved the establishment of a national centre for the control of small arms and light weapons. In the statement released by the Presidency, The President said the centre would be for the policy guidance, research and monitoring of all aspects of small arms and light weapons in the country.
According to the Presidency, the decision to set up this centre is part of an ongoing restructuring of the country’s defence structure to address the threats of small arms and light weapons in Nigeria. The rise in the smuggling of small arms and light weapons into the country and border areas has worsened terrorism, human trafficking, organised crime and insurrections in West Africa and Nigeria.
Security experts’ views
A security expert, Oladele Fajana, said both the government and citizens have roles to play in curbing the dangerous gun trend in the country.
He said that the ease with which firearms move freely around the country was a situation that should bother security agents and every Nigerian.
Fajana added, “The government must as a matter of urgency arrest this situation. The proliferation of firearms in the country, if not handled quickly and effectively by the government, will blow up the powder keg we already are sitting on.
“The porous borders of the country remain one of the major reasons there are small arms and light weapons all over Nigeria. A lot of importers are culprits in the importation of the weapons and they use various tactics to conceal and transport the weapons around the country. Some of the importers who import rice into the country hide guns in the bags of rice and deceive custom officials at the borders.”
According to him, almost every criminal arrested these days is found with guns and even secondary school pupils are not left out of this growing gun trend.
He added that there were citizens who appeared normal but used by criminals to hide guns.
The security expert stated, “There was a socialite who was arrested for gunrunning many years ago. No one knew of his criminal lifestyle until some of the criminals he worked with were caught and his name was mentioned and it was discovered that he was an armourer for them.”
Fajana further said that the most effective method to curb the spread of firearms all around the country was for the government to encourage citizens to report strange happenings or people in their environment.
“Some people know their neighbours keep firearms for criminals but might be scared to report to security operatives for fear of being attacked by the criminals when they are releasaed. The government can encourage citizens by creating reporting lines through which individuals can make anonymous reports to security agencies on anything that can cause harm in the environment and these reports can then be substantiated by security operatives,” he said.
On the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and light Weapons, Fajana said that it wasn’t only the duty of the centre to prevent the spread of firearms in the country, stating that the citizens also had a role to play.
He added, “After the #EndSARS protests, the police rolled out citizen reporting lines through which people could report any form of police harassment and brutality. We need to collectively play our parts to fight crime. If we do not play our part, it might affect us, families or friends. There’s no way the centre can succeed without public help.”
Another security expert, John Enweliku, linked the influx of small arms and light weapons to Nigeria’s porous borders.
He urged the government, customs and the police to join forces with the immigration in halting the entry of migrants with arms into the country. .
According to Enweliku, sometime ago, some smugglers used camels from Mali, Chad and the Niger Republic to smuggle arms into Nigeria.
He added that members of terrorist groups in Nigeria and other West African countries such as the ISWAP and Boko Haram take advantage of the loose borders to smuggle in firearms into the country.
“It is only through the checkmating of the Nigerian borders that this problem can be addressed and these small arms can be stopped from getting into the country.”
Enweliku noted that most of the guns in Nigeria and some West Africa countries were smuggled in from the Sahel region. “When Libyan leader, Muammar Gadaffi was in power, arms were acquired and when he died, many dissident groups came up and use arms at their disposal to terrorise many,’’ Enweliku added.
He said the country needed political will to completely stamp out the rapid proliferation of firearms in Nigeria. He stated, “Even in states where bandits hold sway in the North, there is a need for political will to tackle them. It is only when the political will of leaders is strong enough that the gun menace facing the country can be eradicated.”
Enweliku stated further that Amotekun and the Eastern Security Network could be used to tackle the gun menace if well handled.
He added, “Since they were both local units and members of their communities, they can easily detect and arrest residents who might pose a threat to the safety of lives and property.’’
On his part, a counter-terrorism expert and Senior Researcher for the Lake Chad Basin Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, Dakar, Senegal, Dr Akinola Olojo, stated that there would be no quick fixes considering the depth of challenges facing Nigeria.
He nevertheless noted that the current administration still had an opportunity to invest itself in the difficult but necessary process of redeeming the country.
Olojo said, “First, the current government needs to revamp its leadership posture and seek a more meaningful engagement with citizens. When a violent event such as a (mass) abduction or Boko Haram attack occurs, the reaction of the government and even the president often fails to reflect the mood and appropriate response towards affected communities. There is an evident lack of a sense of urgency and empathy towards citizens. This points to the fundamental problem with Nigeria’s social contract that binds citizens and leaders and it needs to be revisited with a view to redefining the governance framework such that all citizens, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, gender or age, can feel genuinely part of the polity.’’
He identified the second approach as the need for accountability by the Nigerian leadership on all levels specifically ensuring accountability in bringing to justice individuals who had perpetrated crimes of abduction and banditry across the country.
According to him, the government is treating the unfolding cycle of violence with levity and unfortunately, lives are still being lost and many citizens are currently held hostage.
Olojo stated, “There should also be a stronger sense of accountability by lawmakers in the National Assembly towards their respective constituencies or local communities where there are many governance gaps that push people towards extreme poverty and crime. Third, Nigeria does not really need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to addressing security challenges such as violent extremism for instance. There is already a ‘Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism’ which was launched in 2017. It contains most of the critical components capable of addressing the problem at hand. Some of these components focus on strengthening the rule of law and human rights, deepening community engagement and resilience building, and the strengthening of institutions and inter-agency coordination among others. The real question borders on why the Nigerian government fails to implement these components.’’
He concluded that in the light of the transnational character of violent extremism or terrorism, Nigeria should strengthen regional collaboration with its neighbours including Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
“In the present-day period, all four countries are stakeholders of what is known as the ‘Regional Strategy for Stabilisation, Recovery and Resilience of the Boko Haram-affected Areas in the Lake Chad Basin Region.’ This strategy was launched back in 2018 and inspired by the Lake Chad Basin Commission with the support of the African Union and the UNDP. The organisation I work with also supports this partnership. Rather than adopt a desperate posture towards the US, Nigeria should focus on reinforcing the existing intervention pillars of the LCBC’s regional strategy in order to ensure robust and urgent implementation in crisis-affected communities,’’ he said.
Besides, the spokesperson for the Nigeria Police Force, Frank Mba, didn’t pick our correspondent’s call nor reply to a text message sent to his mobile as of the time of filing this report.
PUNCH
