The National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, is calling out police and soldiers for stealing and selling weapons to criminals.
Ribadu said this in Abuja while they were destroying arms at the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons.
The National Security Adviser condemned the security agents involved in the act as “worse human beings” and stressed the importance of implementing measures to hold them accountable.
He added, “We have to find a way of putting a stop to this 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,” he said.
Ribadu also cursed the security personnel who help terrorists and bandits get weapons, saying that many of the illegal arms used in crimes actually came from the government.
Criminal gangs called “bandits” have long plagued Central and North-West Nigeria, engaging in village raids, killing and abducting residents, and looting and burning homes.
Officials and analysts say jihadist groups have taken advantage of gang alliances to establish a presence in central Niger State.
Boko Haram fighters killed soldiers and vigilantes in April near Allawa village. Troops withdrew from the village, causing residents to flee in fear.
Bandits are motivated by money, not ideology. Analysts and officials are expressing concern about their growing alliance with jihadists.