Ned Nwoko, a lawmaker from Delta North Senatorial District, went into great detail on Thursday about his proposed bill, which would permit Nigerians to carry weapons for self-defense in the wake of the nationwide wave of insecurity.
The lawmaker had demanded last month that a bill allowing civilians to own and carry firearms be introduced.
“The Senate needs to receive a bill amending the constitution to permit the ownership of civilian firearms. This urgent issue is addressed in my bill on self-defense and gun ownership regulation, which is presently pending first reading in the Senate,” he had stated.
While dissecting the content of the bill when he featured on Arise TV’s Morning Show on Thursday, Nwoko listed the criteria for Nigerians to bear arms as contained in the bill to include references from two medical doctors certifying mental fitness.
Others include endorsement from the local government chairman for community validation, a traditional leader’s certification, and confirmation by the Divisional Police Officer to verify the intending bearer’s criminal record.
He said, “Talking about my bill, it is not just about people carrying arms, or just going into a store to buy arms, there are measures that have been proposed and they are very strict. In America, every citizen has a right to bear arms and it is enshrined in their constitution. In Nigeria, it is not so.
“So, what I am trying to do specifically is to have a system where people who are willing to carry arms are given the opportunity. One of the first conditions to be met is that every local government area must have a gun shooting school and if you want to bear arms, the first thing to do is to get trained on how to use it and in every local government area, there will be shooting schools run by former military officers which are owned by them.
“Now, when you have been certified to have gone through the training, the next thing you will do will be to go to your King, Emir, or Oba who will give you a letter certifying that you’re from that particular place and the next thing is to go to two doctors and those two doctors must certify that you are mentally fit to bear arms and then you go to your local government chairman who must also confirm that you’re from that particular LG. Then, you’d go to the Divisional Police Officer of that locality and the DPO must confirm that you do not have any criminal records and you’re not a wanted person.”
He claimed that after giving serious thought to the predicament of Nigerians who are regularly terrorized by agents of darkness, he had drafted the bill.
“We all have experienced the lawlessness that is permeating the nation, or we know somebody who has,” the lawmaker remarked. someone who has fallen victim to militants, herdsmen, or kidnappers. The time has come for us as a nation to face the truth: security personnel are not really able to protect people’s lives and property in the manner specified by the constitution.
“The common man is left to his caprices. The common man does not get any kind of support from the police. The police as a force is ill-equipped, ill-funded, and not capable of discharging those onerous duties. That is the basic fact. I am in the Senate committee on police matters and I can tell you that we do not have the number of policemen that we need to secure Nigeria as a country.
“The military on the other hand, I mean, we’ve been spending billions of naira over the years buying warplanes, different kinds of arms and ammunitions in the name of fighting terrorism and other crimes. But they are again not able to deal with the issues. So, a lot of money has been spent, a lot of lives have been lost and we are nowhere near finding a solution. Look, the idea of a bill to enable Nigerians to bear arms is born out of desperation and the fact that people do not have the kind of protection that they need.”
Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, the majority leader of the House of Representatives, stated in 2022 that Nigerians ought to have the freedom to carry weapons and protect themselves from terrorists, prior to Nwoko.
In 2020, Samuel Ortom, the governor of Benue State at the time, also pleaded with the federal government to permit law-abiding Nigerians to carry weapons for self-defense.
In a press conference, he stated, “If the bandits, terrorists, and criminals know that the people around there have sophisticated weapons like they have, they will caution themselves.” They were planning to attack, destroy property, and steal.
Punch
