The Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Uba Sani, has expressed concern that approximately 200 million firearms are currently in circulation across Nigeria.
“When I was in the Senate I tried to amend the Firearms Act because it is obsolete. The last time the Firearms Act was amended in Nigeria was over 30 years ago.
“The firearms act in Nigeria is not in line with the global best practices. Nigeria is the only country where you can be arrested with illegal firearms and can be taken to court and you can be released based on some charges and not imprisonment. You can pay a fine of about 50,000 naira and you can go home.
“That is why I started emphasising (firearms control) when the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC), tabled the report when I was in the senate that about 200 million illegal firearms are in circulation in Nigeria out of the 250 million in circulation in West Africa,” Sani said.
