At least 385,079 firearms and ammunition were recovered by security agencies from non-state actors across the country in the last 12 months.

A breakdown of the number shows that approximately 8,906 firearms and 376,173 rounds of ammunition were recovered by the Nigeria Police Force, the military and the Department of State Services.

The figures were from media reports of the seizures made by the security agencies during various operations.

The firearms and ammunition were recovered from terrorists, bandits, and Indigenous People of Biafra combatants, among others.

The military, in several briefings, disclosed that it recovered 5,900 firearms and 128,122 rounds of ammunition in the last six months.

The DSS, on its part, said its men recovered over 21,000 pump-action cartridges, 440 pump-action rifles and 228,741 rounds of ammunition between May 29, 2023, and May 29, 2024.

Similarly, the police recovered 2,566 firearms and 19,310 rounds of ammunition in the last one year.

On Monday, the Nigerian Customs Service announced that it intercepted a 40-foot container loaded with 844 rifles and 112,500 live ammunition rounds in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The arms and ammunition were said to have been skillfully concealed within items such as doors, furniture, plumbing fittings and leather bags.

The intercepted container was also reported to have originated from Turkey and its duty-paid value was put at N4bn.

Again on Wednesday, Customs said it intercepted various military and paramilitary accouterments improperly imported at the Murtala Muhammed Area Command in Lagos and also recovered 55 pieces of unassembled Jojef Magnum (Tomahawk) semi-automatic shotguns emanating from Turkey.

The service said the arms have a duty-paid value of N271m while the total value of the various contrabands stood at N1.568bn.

According to a 2023 report by SBM Intelligence, an Africa-focused market/security intel gathering and strategic consulting firm, an estimated 6.1 million small arms are in the possession of non-state actors.

In January, the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons said it had recovered no fewer than 30,000 small arms, light weapons, and ammunition in Nigeria since its establishment in 2001.

The National Coordinator of the NCCSALW, North-West Zone, AVM Haruna Mohammed (retd.), disclosed this during a training organised for journalists in Kaduna.

Mohammed said, “Over 10,000 small arms and light weapons and over 20,000 ammunition of different calibres have so far been recorded.

“I want to categorically mention here that security agencies and in addition, religious and traditional rulers, civil society organisations, and the media played a vital role. We will not rest on our laurels.”

Mohammed said information and knowledge sharing were critical for the promotion of peace in society.

“Proliferation of small arms and light weapons lead to the upsurge of armed groups, communal clashes, cultism, kidnapping, ethnic and religious violence the world over, and these result to loss of lives and property and displacement of our people.

“It is against this background that the Federal Government of Nigeria found it necessary, as part of efforts to rejig the security architecture, to establish NCCSALW to serve as a security mechanism for the prevention and control of proliferation small arms and light weapons towards peace and security in Nigeria,” Mohammed said.

A retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, Wilson Inalegwu, told The PUNCH that the number of arms and ammunition recovered from non-state actors underscored the need for vigilance.

He said, “Well, I think the situation we find ourselves in calls for extra vigilance.  And that underscores the desperation on the part of some Nigerians, with different motives that we really cannot explain.  But in this vigilance, coordination is important. If such a large cache of weapons is seized, then you can tell what is happening.

“It shows that we must all be vigilant and the intelligence, security, and law enforcement agencies must close ranks.  We must avoid vain glory. We will continue to have challenges unless the government puts down its feet.  The government, and I think the NSA, must begin to have these small cells of security coordinations. There should be structures that will promote synergy.”

A retired Commissioner of Police, Lawrence Alobi, urged security agencies to conduct more operations to mop up illegal arms in the country.

He also called on the Federal Government to strengthen the Firearms Act and the nation’s border.

Alobi said, “You see, when I was in charge of federal operations, we used to carry out operations to mop up illegal arms. It helped to recover arms in circulation.

But then the point is that because our borders are very porous, and then again, illegal arms are coming to the country because there are a lot of people using arms to commit offences, and violent crimes and cause terrorism and banditry.

 “So I think the government should strengthen the Firearms Act. Our Firearms Act is very weak. Also, our border, sea and  land, should be strengthened because I saw sometimes the way it costs them to recover so many tons of arms.”