Federal Government of Nigeria has stepped up moves to control the proliferation of small arms and light weapons across the country within a possible time frame.

National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, announced that President Bola Tinubu has signed the legislation to create the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Ribadu shared this information during the Workshop on Gender Mainstreaming aimed at preventing the spread of small arms and light weapons in Nigeria and the West African region, held on Tuesday in Abuja Nigeria.

He was represented by Ambassador Ibrahim Babani, who serves as the Director of External Affairs in the Office of the National Security Adviser .

He said, “the National Centre has retrieved a total of quantity 3,383 decommissioned, unserviceable, obsolete and illicit small arms and light weapons and 26,749 various calibres of ammunition from the arms bearing agencies of government.

“Later in this quarter, NCCSALW would be conducting an Arms Destruction Exercise which is a critical step in ensuring that recovered arms are permanently removed from circulation,”