The Federal Government, through the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) has solicited stakeholders’ support towards the forfeiture and safe disposal of illicit arms and weapons after the court’s judgement.
The centre made this call in Ado-Ekiti during a one-day seminar themed: ‘Strengthening procedural approaches for the forfeiture and safe disposal of small arms and light weapons after the court’s judgement.
The seminar was attended by stakeholders, including security agencies, officials of the Ministry of Justice, lawyers, judges, officials of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), religious and traditional rulers and the media, among others.
Speaking, the Director General of NCCSALW, DIG Johnson Kokumo (retd) said the seminar was put together to seek the understanding of critical stakeholders in making sure that those illicit arms and weapons, after prosecution, are forfeited and not returned to the society
The DG, represented by the Centre’s Director of Legal Services, Chioma Onuegbu, explained that those arms would be used for criminal activities if returned to the society, hence the need to totally destroy them after court proceedings.
He said, “The aims and objectives of this workshop is to curtail the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, especially those arms that have gone through the criminal justice system
“That is from investigation, prosecution, and then judgments. So what happens to those weapons after judgments? That is exactly what we want to achieve so that those exhibits tendered in court shouldn’t go back to society, to those criminals.
“We want, at the time of judgment, the prosecutor to ask the court to forfeit those exhibits to the federal government, precisely under the control of the National Center for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons.”
Tribune
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