The Nigeria Police Force has apprehended Private Bara’u Tajuddeen, a soldier with service number 22NA/82/3441, over alleged theft of military ammunition and anti-aircraft rounds.
Tajuddeen, assigned to the 19 Special Force Brigade in Maiduguri, was detained at the Maiduguri motor park en route to Kano, reportedly attempting to sell the stolen weapons to bandits.
According to a source on Saturday, Tajuddeen had been under surveillance and was intercepted while carrying the stolen ammunition intended for unlawful sale.
He said, “The Nigeria Police Force have arrested a soldier identified as Private Bara’u Tajuddeen with service number 22NA/82/3441, for stealing military ammunition and anti-aircraft rounds intended to sell for bandits.
“Private Bara’u Tajuddeen, is posted or working with 19 Special Force Brigade in Maiduguri and was arrested at Maiduguri motor park on his way to Kano, carrying the stolen ammunition.”
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Recall that in October, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, slammed some Nigerian military and police personnel who were stealing arms and ammunition from their formations and selling to criminal elements.
Ribadu had disclosed this in Abuja during the destruction of arms by the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms And Light Weapons (NCCSALW).
He had said, “We have to find a way of putting a stop to this. We must if we want to recover our country and live in peace and stability. The worst human being is a policeman or a soldier who will take arms from his own formations and sell them or hide them out for the bad people to come and kill his own colleagues.
“We must fight these people but also there are merchants of death and evil from outside the world.
“The proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons remains a major threat to our national security, exacerbating issues such as insurgency, banditry, and other violent crimes.”
The NSA had also stated that a sizeable number of illicit arms being used to commit crimes in the country originally belonged to the government.
He had explained that the weapons ended up in the hands of non-state actors due to corrupt elements within the security agencies.
Ribadu said the destruction of arms was part of efforts to address the challenge of arms proliferation in Nigeria.
The NSA said by destroying unserviceable, obsolete and recovered arms, the government was demonstrating its commitment to a secure future for all Nigerians.
He said, “All illicit arms, not only unserviceable, all illicit. Any weapon that is taken is out there that is through an illegal process.
“We have laws that govern ownership of small arms. If you do not follow it, it is an illegal arm and it is supposed to be destroyed completely.”
The Director General of NCCSALW, DIG Johnson Kokumo (retd), said the arms destruction exercise was the third in a series since the centre was established and the first since his assumption of command.