Police to destroy 10,000 firearms as IGP reveals what will happen to Shiites

Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris has set up a committee to
destroy 10,000 illegal firearms and 26,000 ammunition recovered from
members of the public earlier this year.

The committee, which would be headed by the DIG in charge of
Operations, Habila Joshak, has representatives from United Nations
(UN) organs, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and
Presidential Committee on Prohibition of Small Arms and Light Weapons
(PRESCOM).

Idris at a monthly meeting with senior police officers on Thursday
said the weapons would be destroyed before the 2019 elections.

The IG also described the actions of the El-Zakzaky Islamic Movement
of Nigeria members as un-Islamic.

He said: "I have set up a committee headed by the DIG Department of
Operations comprising the United Nations Organs, the ECOWAS and the
Presidential Committee on Prohibition of Small Arms and Light Weapons
(PRESCOM) and other critical stakeholders for the destruction of
illegal weapons retrieved from members of the public before the 2019
General Election.

"They will destroy about 10,000 illegal firearms and prohibited
weapons and over 26,000 illegal ammunition recovered in the mop-up
operations of illegal firearms and prohibited weapons currently
ongoing throughout the country."

The IG warned that the Force would longer tolerate negligence on the
part of Commissioners of Police in preventing crisis.

He said: "The Government and the people expect much from us in
ensuring security and safety of all Nigerians throughout the country
as we go into the 2019 general elections.

"The Force will no longer tolerate laxity on the part of any
Commissioner of Police, who fails to be proactive in dealing with
crisis and other violent crimes in their area of responsibilities
(AOR).

"We have to do more in ensuring adequate security throughout the
country from now on to the election and beyond."

On the crisis in the FCT caused by members of the El-Zakzaky Islamic
Movement of Nigeria, the IG said: "Most of the El-Zakzaky Islamic
Movement of Nigeria's members were arrested with hard drugs in their
possession and these are people that claimed to be Islamic. This makes
us to start thinking and questioning them.

"These youths have been used to cause havoc and I think the group
should just be called El-Zakzaky because I don't see anything Islamic
about them.

"These are people who are trying to bring problem of security to the
country and the strategies applied by the police were the best.

"I think our actions are commendable because our confrontation with
them has not led to any death and that was because we were trying to
avoid using too much force in tackling the situation.

"Our response has to be measured because these are Nigerians who are
misguided. So, we need to apply strategies to handle them."

The IG added that some of them would be charged to court for terrorism.