Following the success recorded through the Whistle Blower Policy as relates to looted finances, the Office of the National Security Adviser to the President on Sunday said it is planning to extend it to illegal weapons in the country.
The move which was announced in a statement by Presidential Media aide, Garba Shehu on Sunday, is targeted at eradicating illegal ownership of small arms and light weapons as well as general gun control in the country. According to him, the Presidency is already up the rules of a whistleblower mechanism to throw a spotlight on the regime of gun ownership and control in the country.
“The ONSA Initiative may be an independent line of inquiry or in active collaboration with what the government is doing in Finance.
This will be a sort of searchlight on weapons ownership in the country. Whatever form or shape it takes, the administration wants to take a tough line to curtail the large number of illegal weapons in circulation used in intra and inter-communal conflicts. The aim is to disarm communities especially those with proclivity to violence” Shehu said in the statement.
He added that in the last few days, there have been discussions by the administration to strengthen the whistleblower mechanism in the Ministry of Finance which, to date has proved to be very effective in bringing the attention of the government to stolen assets and unexplained wealth.
“In line with Presidential directives, the National Security Adviser, Maj-Gen. Babagana Munguno (rtd) has began work on a template for the discovery and recovery of illegal weapons through a reward system following the success of the whistleblower policy under the Ministry of Finance.
“The ONSA which already has a committee on the recovery of small arms and light weapons in the country has decided to adopt the whistleblower approach so as to eradicate mass shooting incidents and remove the harassment of law abiding citizens by holders of illegal weapons” he said.
The whistle blower policy introduced by the ministry of finance has seen to the recovery of billions of naira with a recent recovery of about 13 billion naira.
ELIZABETH ARCHIBONG
