By Aiyeku Timothy
The Pan-Northern socio-political group, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has alleged that camels are now being used to bring in “Rocket Propelled Grenades RPGs” and “anti-aircraft guns” into the country through northern borders.
The National Chairman of the ACF, Chief Audu Ogbeh, disclosed this in a statement he personally signed titled, ‘Our borders and insecurity,’ and released by the National Publicity Secretary of the Forum, Emmanuel Yawe, in Kaduna on Thursday.
The statement said the weapons were being ferried into the country from a neighboring country but failed to name any as he disclosed that the information was revealed by ACF members from Sokoto and Zamfara states.
Ogbeh said that the northern body found it duty-bound to alert the Federal Government for urgent and necessary actions, knowing that both Sokoto and Zamfara shared borders with the Republic of Niger.
“Already, it is speculated that weapons as dangerous as Rocket Propelled Grenades RPGs, and anti-aircraft guns are part of the cargo ferried by camels freely into our country from neighboring countries,” he said.
The former Minister of Agriculture stated that the camels bringing in the consignments (weapons) are not being checked by security operatives as he urged the government to handle the situation promptly.
Ogbeh said, “At the last meeting of our National Executive Council, NEC, in October 2020, our members, particularly from Sokoto and Zamfara, reported that large consignments of Camels were crossing our borders into Nigeria with a lot of baggage on their backs on a daily basis.
“And they observed that nobody checks their baggage and nobody knows what is being brought into Nigeria.
“The question Arewa Consultative Forum would like to ask the security agencies is what are the camels carrying and where they are heading?
“The ACF is alarmed that this kind of situation should persist at a time when weapons of all kinds are coming into our country and worsening the climate of terror and national uncertainty.”
He added, “It is clear now from what we know that, as victims pay ransoms to the kidnappers, the money is instantly converted to more sophisticated weapons and instruments of death by the kidnappers.
“The capacity of these terrorists is rising by the day and we are not far from the moment when the terrorist will become better armed than our accredited security agencies.
“The ACF wants to alert the government about this situation, if they are not aware of it and if they are aware of it, to ask what they are doing about it.”
He further stated that “It will do the nation a great deal of good to deal with this situation immediately. The ACF is deeply worried.”
