The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Rilwan Disu, has warned that the
proliferation of small arms and light weapons remains a major threat to peace and stability across Africa, fuelling terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and organised crime.
Disu spoke on Monday in Abuja while declaring open a five-day Small Arms and Light Weapons Identification and Tracing (SALW-IT) Simulation Programme, aimed at strengthening participants’ capacity to identify, mark, register and trace illicit weapons and ammunition.
The programme, running from October 12 to 16, brings together security personnel from Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, Mali, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger, Libya, Benin and the Republic of the Congo. It features technical training and practical exercises at the Nigeria Police Simulation Centre.
The IGP said effective weapons tracing would help investigators uncover trafficking networks, financiers and supply routes, enabling security agencies to disrupt illicit arms flows.
He added that cutting off illegal weapons supplies was critical to preventing electoral violence, protecting voters and electoral personnel, and ensuring peaceful elections in Nigeria.
He called for stronger regional cooperation through timely intelligence sharing, coordinated investigations and mutual legal assistance to prevent criminals from exploiting national borders to evade justice.
He also disclosed plans for police chiefs from West and East African countries to deliberate on shared security challenges and develop coordinated responses to transnational crime.
Disu said the knowledge gained would be cascaded across police commands and formations to strengthen officers’ capacity to trace and recover weapons, generate actionable intelligence and support routine policing and election-security operations.
He commended the African Union Mechanism for Police Cooperation (AFRIPOL), the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies, INTERPOL, relevant African Union entities and experts from the German Armed Forces Verification Centre for supporting the initiative.
The IGP reaffirmed the Nigeria Police Force’s commitment to regional arms-control efforts, stressing that sustained cooperation was essential to curbing illicit weapons trafficking and improving public safety across the continent.
