We’ve Identified Hotspots For Arms Trafficking In Nigeria – Police

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has said that it has uncovered the hotspots used by the criminal syndicates for arms trafficking in Nigeria.

Spokesperson of the Police, Frank Mba, made the disclosure while speaking on Thursday when he featured as a guest on ‘Good Morning Nigeria’, a programme on NTA.

According to Mba, the hotspots are majorly the border areas across the country, adding that the unmanned borders offer easy passage for arms dealers.

Mba said that the force is also working towards apprehending persons involved in the manufacturing and export of small arms from Nigeria to neighbouring countries.

The police spokesman added that the police are working towards dismantling such criminal operations.

He said: “We’ve identified the hotspots for arms trafficking in Nigeria, and the hotspots are majorly the border areas. Today, these border areas are receiving a lot of attention from our men,” he said.

“We’ve also come to understand very clearly the international dimensions of arms trafficking, and that’s why we are focusing on identifying, investigating and dismantling international arms smuggling syndicates.

“We have done that successfully from 2019 till now; in fact, for one of the syndicates, we tracked all the way from Saki in Oyo state through to Benin Republic, followed their route up to Burkina Faso, and picked up every single person involved.”

Mba, however, revealed how security agencies tracked a criminal syndicate from Nigeria to Burkina Faso and recovered thousands of AK-47 ammunition.

The police PRO noted that the police worked with other international agencies to apprehend the criminal syndicate.

“We worked with INTERPOL, we worked with WAPOL, and from that particular syndicate, we recovered up to 6,000 rounds of AK-47 ammunition,” he added.