You have no Authority to Acquire automatic weapons for your security outfits – CDS warns Benue, Ondo Governors

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Lucky Irabor, has reinstated that no state has the authority to buy automatic weapons for its security forces.

Irabor on Friday during a press conference said this in Abuja after the National Security Council meeting.

The meeting was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State gave the Buhari administration one month  deadline to approve his request to obtain an AK-47 licence or he would seek counsel from his people on the best course of action.

The governor made the remarks during the passing out procession of the second batch of the State Volunteer Community Guards at IBB Square in Makurdi on Thursday.

In August, Ortom promised while inaugurating the state’s security organisation’s first group of employees that “sophisticated weapons” would be provided for them.

Similarly, Rotimi Akeredolu, the governor of Ondo, stated the state would buy weapons for members of the Western Nigeria Security Network, also known as Amotekun, in September.

Speaking on the development, Irabor claimed that the federal government’s agencies had the authority to authorise the purchase of automatic weapons like the AK-47.

“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 one, and sometimes even the dane guns some of the hunters use,” he said.

“What is involved in the class mentioned has to do with automatic weapons. No state has been given a licence for that. So, you do not ask for what you do not have the power to acquire.”