The Federal Government of Nigeria has warned state governors against procuring AK-47s for their various internal security outfits.
The Chief of Defense Staff, General Lucky Irabor, warned that no state or state government has the authority to acquire weapons of the calibre they are requesting for.
Irabor stated this on Friday while briefing State House correspondents after the National Security Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He added that the deployment of high calibre weapons, such as the AK-47 rifles, lies strictly within the purview of the federal government security agencies.
Gen. Irabor, flanked by the Ministers of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and that of Police Affairs, Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi, said, “firearms fall into two major categories. You have the automatic weapons and the ones that we may classify as non-automatic weapons which some of you may even have if you have the appropriate licences. Talking about the Pump Action which is the very common ones, and sometimes even the dane guns some of the hunters use.
“What is involved in the class that mentioned has to do with automatic weapons. There’s no state that has been given licence for that,” he declared, adding that the sole responsibility of licencing lies with the federal government agencies and also to be used by government security agencies and not quasi security forces.
“So, you do not ask for what you do not have power to acquire.”