The Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, has raised the alarm over the movement of illicit arms from conflict-ridden parts of Northern Nigeria to the South-West, warning that the trend poses a growing security threat.

Disu disclosed this on Thursday during a visit by the Director-General of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons to the Force Headquarters in Abuja.

He said intelligence indicated that weapons were being transported from battle zones in Maiduguri and Zamfara to other parts of the country, particularly the South-West, through road and water routes.

“Arms are moving everywhere in the country, using the roads, the waters and even other routes. Arms are moving from the battle areas, Maiduguri, Zamfara, down to the West. Most of the time they come by road and by water as well, so timely intelligence will help us solve this,” Disu said.

He stressed the need for real-time intelligence sharing among security agencies to intercept the weapons before they reach criminal elements.

“Intelligence shared is invaluable. Everywhere in the world, intelligence sharing is going to real-time intelligence sharing so that we can quickly nip it in the bud,” he added.

Disu attributed the influx of illegal arms into the country to Nigeria’s porous borders, saying traffickers had continued to exploit unmanned border routes to smuggle weapons.

“Our borders are so porous, and these people have made up their minds to traffic arms. They will do anything possible to ensure the arms come into the country and get into the hands of those who want to use them to commit crimes,” he said.

The senior police officer also expressed concern over the increasing sophistication of locally manufactured firearms, noting that some were almost indistinguishable from imported weapons.

“As police officers, we are recovering arms that we are even finding it difficult to identify because they look almost like imported arms. People are now producing weapons that look just like AK-47 rifles, complete with serial numbers,” he said.

He called for a crackdown on illegal arms manufacturers and black markets where such weapons are sold, describing them as key drivers of insecurity.

Disu further urged stricter security around police armouries, warning that some security personnel had been implicated in the illegal sale of weapons.

“We need to go back and look at our armouries, who is manning them and carry out periodic checks. Once in a while, officers of various agencies have been involved in the sale of illegal arms,” he said.

He added that the police had intensified the recovery of illegal weapons ahead of the 2027 general elections and would sustain civil disarmament campaigns to encourage the voluntary surrender of illicit arms.

Earlier, the DG of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms & Light Weapons, DIG Babatunde Johnson (retd), said the centre had destroyed over 16,000 obsolete, decommissioned, and unserviceable weapons since its inception.

He said the Nigeria Police Force had supplied a total of 11,907 illicit, unserviceable, obsolete, and decommissioned weapons to the centre.

“Out of this, given to the centre by the Nigerian Police Force, we have 8,438 automatic weapons and 3,489 locally fabricated weapons”, he said.