From: Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly ordered a meeting of
security chiefs with officials of the Ondo State Government following
the submission of suphisticated weapons by militants in the creeks of
the state.
It was gathered that the president directed security chiefs to meet
with officials of the state government and members of the state’s
amnesty committee.
Also, it was gathered that the presidency was worried by the quality
of weapons recovered from militants in the creeks of Ondo State.
The meeting ordered by President Buhari, it was learnt was meant to
review the security situation in oil rich Niger Delta region.
A source revealed that governors of the nine oil producing states as
well as security chiefs are expected at the parley.
According to the source, the meeting which is being coordinated by the
Director General of the Department of State Services(DSS), Mallam
Lawal Daura is coming on the heels of the massive arms haul effected
by the Ondo State Amnesty Committee in conjunction with security
agencies.
The source hinted that the proposed meeting became necessary because
it was widely believed before now that aside the Niger Delta Avengers,
none of the militant group has the capacity to pull through a massive
arms hold as witnessed in Ondo State last week.
At the riverine Ajapa community in Ese-Odo Local Government Area of
the state, the Amnesty Committee in company of security chiefs had
last week recovered dangerous assorted weapons from militants.
The recovered arms included a Browning machine gun, one General
Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), Daewoo K3, Colt Automatic Rifles, Breda
30, Fiat Revelli Modelling, several AK 47 Rifles, one Rocket Launcher,
CETME Ameli, Heckler & Koch MG4, tens of Pump Action rifles and some
Automatic Cartridges.
Also surrendered by militants were military uniforms, police bullet
proof vests, dynamites, grenades, bombs and helmets.
The arms were turned in by the kidnappers of the six students of
Igbonla Model College, Epe, Lagos state and other militants.
A member of the state’s amnesty committee who preffered anonymity said
“what we saw was like a film, no one ever envisaged that these young
boys would amass this quality of weapons and keep. It is highly
embarrassing, to say the least.
“As soon as the photographs of the arms were released and it was
confirmed that the arms were from that community aside several others
that were recovered from other villages, the president ordered that an
appraisal be done immediately.
“That is why all the governors of the Niger Delta region and the
security chiefs will meet on Wednesday because no one had any inkling
that apart from the avengers, any such group could muster this massive
hold of weapons.
“It is a thing of great concern and worry to every responsible
government because some of the weapons the militants surrendered are
not just arms even a country can easily procure, it takes a process.
So the question is, how did these boys get to this level.
“More efforts should be made by all the governors of the region to
adopt the Ondo model to mop up arms because there are likely to be
more dangerous game groups with far more sophisticated weapons at
their disposal,” he added.