National Democratic Front (NDF) has said the unmasking of Senator Ibikunle Amosun as gunrunner has vindicated the group’s earlier emphasis that serving and former governors were responsible for the widespread insecurity in the country.
Barely a week ago, NDF faulted the call by the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) on President Muhammadu Buhari to overhaul the nation’s security architecture as solution to insecurity in the country.
The group argued that some of the governors and their allies were directly responsible for creating or heightening the situation owing to greed for power.
In a statement by its Secretary-General, Comrade Bolaji Abdukadir, in Abuja, the group said: “As envisaged, facts emerged how ex-Governor Amosun reportedly built nondescript armoury inside the Ogun state government House where he stored truckloads of arms, ahead of the elections.
“After the polls, Mr Amosun surrendered at least four million rounds of ammunition, 1,000 units of AK47 assault rifles, 1,000 units of bulletproof vests and an armoured personnel carrier (APC).
“When queried by the police, the ex-governor claimed he procured the artillery to check the widespread insecurity in his state of 3,751,140 residents.”
The group urged the federal government to immediately order that Senator Amosun to be taken into custody for further investigation.
In the event the federal government lags in taking action, NDF, however, issued a 7-day ultimatum to the serving senator and others fingered in the insecurity threat of the country.
“We are concerned that for Amosun to have kept an inventory of 1000 rifles and 4,000,000 bullets, a larger number of the hardware would have fallen into the wrong hands. This explains the proliferation of light weapons that are in part responsible for the security breaches across the country.
“It is necessary to verify how much of these weapons he originally ordered for shipping into the country and how many of them he lost in transit, how many he has issued out prior to the election and the people he gave the weapons to.
“Our concern is that Ibikunle Amosun is not alone in perpetrating acts that have put guns and bullets on our streets to make the country unsafe. In the past, Mr. Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue state was named by captured militias as the one arming and funding them.”
