ASHENEWS reports that the Minister of Defence, Muhammad Badaru, says that 13 firms have commenced local manufacturing of firearms in Nigeria.
The minister stated this during the Ministerial Sectorial Update in Abuja on Thursday.
According to the minister, the development followed the recent approval of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria Bill by President Bola Tinubu.
The minister noted that the Federal Government had engaged in discussions with nearly 50 domestic and international firms regarding the domestic manufacturing of firearms within the country out of which 13 companies have already commenced manufacturing.
“With the help of the bill, Nigeria has been discussing with over 50 private companies, both within and abroad, in the area of production of weapons and other military equipment.
“In fact, 13 of them have already started production or are about to start production.”
“The Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Naval Staff and the Chief of Air Staff are working together as against what it used to be. That has led to productivity and efficiency in their operations. In addition to this, we have close collaboration with the office of the National Security Adviser, the police, the NSCDC and all other security agencies,” the minister said.
The minister further noted that security agencies in Nigeria have heightened collaboration in a bid to tackle the insecurity in some parts of the country.
In his words, “This has translated to tremendous progress in the last one year. Because of the synergy, we were able to neutralise more than 9,300 bandits and insurgents; about 7,000 were arrested while we rescued 4,641 kidnapped victims in just one year.
“We have also recovered 4,882 assorted weapons and 83,900 assorted ammunition in just one year. Among those that we naturalised were bandits that you hear. We have neutralised not less than 20 bandit leaders the commanders of insurgents and terrorists in just one year.”
