Aisha Umar
1 November 2009
Abuja — Federal Government has set up a technical committee to examine the process of institutionalizing a full fledged commission on small arms in the country, the Minister of foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe has said.
Speaking during the closing ceremony of the West African Annual Seminar on International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in Abuja, Maduekwe who was represented by the Director, ECOWAS Division of his ministry, said the creation of small arms commission would help the federal government and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to tackle the increased flow of small arms and light weapons into the region.
He stated that "We must therefore take concerted measures to rid our sub region of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. Our porous borders, coupled with loose regulatory and enforcement mechanisms must be strengthened to curb the flow of illicit weapons into the sub region. In this way, the ECOWAS region would be assured of lasting peace as against the drum of wars echoing around us.
He said the state of ratification of the ECOWAS convention on small arms and light weaponry was very low with only nine of the fifteen member states having ratified the convention thus posing a continual defeat to efforts.
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