Lalong, STF move to cub proliferation of light arms, says Shiites remain banned in Plateau
Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State and the Special Task Force (STF), has synergised to halt the proliferation of small and light arms in Plateau, insisting that only government security agencies are permitted to carry arms.
Lalong stated this on Sunday at the STF Headquarters in Jos, on the invitation of the STF Commander, Major General Rogers Nicholas, to peruse the number of small and locally made arms recovered from various communities in the state.
While speaking with newsmen, Lalong also said that all activities of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, (IMN), otherwise known as Shiites remain ban in Plateau.
His words, “you can see we are now enjoying peace in Plateau and it will be wrong for another religious organization to plunge us into another round of crisis. Shiites has already been declared as an unlawful society at their Headquarters in Kaduna, so why should their branch exist in Plateau. I am appealing to them to take their movement elsewhere, because we are working on consolidating on the peace we worked so hard to achieve and we will not tolerate any form of religious activity that will disrupt the already existing peace we have”, he said.
On the synergy with the STF to mob up more arms in the hands of unauthorized persons, the governor said in the coming days, he will authorize his Commissioners to return to their local communities, in an attempt to mob up more arms and “we shall be doing this together with the STF otherwise known as Operation Safe Haven, and we shall also be offering them amnesty with some sort of rewords if they give up their arms”, he emphasized.
However, Gen. Nicholas, hold the view that the local manufacturers of these arms can be harnessed and taken to the Defence Industry Corporation Of Nigeria (DICON), where the federal government can put them into good use.
“Since they can produce these locally made weapons, instead of jailing them, we can take them to DICON and legally train them to now officially produce weapons for government”.
