Anambra State Police Command has given people in the 181 communities of the state 21-day ultimatum to voluntarily submit to the state command, all illegally acquired firearms and ammunitions or face prosecution.
The directive came on the heels of some communities and the state government that have regularly been empowering youths with arms to serve as internal security, leading to the proliferation of small weapons in the state.
And, acting on the recent directive of Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to mop up arms in states, the Anambra State commissioner of police, Garba Umar said that he would arrest and prosecute any individual or groups of persons found with any kind of prohibited firearms in the state, who fail to turn them in within the grace period given.
Addressing newsmen in Awka, the state capital, Umar said that the command has set up a 9-man task force chaired by ACP Baba Maiyaki to ensure strict adherence to the directive, adding that the mop up operation is targeted at full enforcement of the Firearms Act of 2004.
He listed the firearms affected by the exercise to include artillery, apparatus for the discharge of any explosives of gas diffusion projectiles, rocket weapons, bomb and grenades.
Other weapons enumerated by the commissioner were machine guns and pistols, military rifles, revolvers and pistols, pump action gun of all categories as well as any other firearms weapons fabricated to kill.
Umar advised members of the public, individuals and groups such as Vigilante, neighborhood watch, Town unions, hunters, watch night men or any group or association under any capacity to surrender such prohibited arms before the expiration of the date of the ultimatum. [myad]
