The Interview Editors
Former Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, was reported to have bought and stored 1000 AK47 assault rifles in the government house supposedly on behalf of the police. Is it normal practice for governors to procure arms and ammunition for the police?
I don’t think so because arms and ammunition are procured by the federal authorities.
If the federal authorities maintain the police, it is their responsibility to buy arms.
And they have arms contractors who supply arms and ammunition.
If he got some arms, where did he get it from? Did he get permission from the president before getting these arms?
The issue is that he stored the arms in the government house in disregard of safety requirements and the law. How possible is it to safeguard this amount of weapons that were stored casually?
Today, we have insecurity in this country. There is proliferation of arms in the country. Many years back AK47 was very sophisticated and it was not easy for anyone to lay hands on it.
Now, it is in abundance all over the country. That is why we have this proliferation of arms and the insecurity.
That is why, sometimes, we have killings which the police cannot detect. When important people are killed people will make noise, the police will make noise and nothing will come out of it.
I think these are some of the arms the governors procure and keep them in the government house after using them at will without any permission. It is wrong.
And now, they are blaming it on the police. They are blaming it on the Fulanis. They are blaming it on kidnappers. They are blaming it on everybody when in fact, it is the politicians that cause the insecurity
Former president, Goodluck Jonathan, has denied giving permission to Amosun to build an armory or store weapons in the government house. Where then could Amosun have obtained permission from?
First of all, it was wrong for him to buy the arms.
It was also wrong for him to store it in government house because we have standard armory which is always maintained by the police or the military.
Any arms kept anywhere outside the armory is wrong. It is wrong because anybody can break into the receptacle, carry the arms and begin to cause trouble in the country.
And that is why we have this insecurity in the country. And now, they are blaming it on the police. They are blaming it on the Fulanis.
They are blaming it on kidnappers. They are blaming it on everybody when in fact, it is the politicians that cause the insecurity.
Is it acceptable for a state command of the police to take delivery of such weapons without the knowledge of the Inspector General of Police?
It is the duty of the police to recover weapons without getting the permission of the IGP.
They will take possession of the arms and then inform the IG who will give instructions to determine how the arms came into the possession of the man from whom they took away the weapons.
If they lose their immunity, they should be charged to court for unlawful possession and for illegal importation of these weapons. The law allows only the police, the military and paramilitary organisations to bear arms, but not a state governor
But so far there has been no call for an investigation by either the Inspector General of the Police or the federal government. Is there a reason for that?
We will not know. Maybe they have given instruction for the investigation and the public is not aware of it.
But I am sure this is a very serious matter and I am sure, any responsible government will order the investigation of the purchase of these arms.
How is it possible for security agencies to have been unaware that such a large amount of arms and ammunition were stored in a government house?
The thing is, how did the weapons come in? Did they come in through the ports or through our borders? If they came through our borders or the port, customs must be aware of it.
The ADC to the governor must be aware of it. The security adviser to the governor must know something about it.
And maybe they had this conspiracy of silence and decided not to tell anybody. They just kept it and used it when they needed the weapons.
So, the whole things revolves on the police ADC, the security adviser and all security of the governor knew about it and of course, the SSS tied to the governor will also know about it.
Maybe they refused to report this to the appropriate authorities. That why, you see, when you post security agents to governors, they have divided loyalties.
Normally, their duty on attachment to governors is supposed to be security and spying.
This is because if they see anything which is at variance to the security of the country, they should inform their head office. But they don’t do so in this country.
What are the chances that other governors out there are in possession of these kinds of weapons without the federal government knowing about it?
Well, if they lose their immunity, they should be charged to court for unlawful possession and for illegal importation of these weapons.
The law allows only the police, the military and paramilitary organisations to bear arms, but not a state governor.
