Senate Investigates Alleged Abuse Of Firearms By NCS

The Senate has set up an ad- hoc committee to investigate alleged indescriminate use of firearms across the nation’s borders, resulting in alleged killings of Nigerians in Kastina state.

The Senate’s resolution was sequel to the adoption of a motion at plenary on Wednesday.

The motion entitled” Urgent Need to Investigate the Abuse of firearms by Officers of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Kastina State was sponsored by Senator Abdulaziz Yar’adua of Kastina State during plenary in Abuja.

The Committee, which has Senator Francis Fadahunsi of Osun state as Chairman, has six weeks to present report of its investigation to plenary.

Other members of the committee include Senators Shaibu lawal, Kawu Sumaila,Tony Nwoye, Umar Sadik, Akpan Samson, Solomon Adeola, Abdulaziz Yar’adua among others.

Earlier, Yar’adua in the motion said it remained a fact that officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) were authorized to carry firearms while discharging their duties.

This, he said was aimed at assisting the service to effectively counter activities of smugglers, who have recently become emboldened in their attack on customs personnel in many cases using sophisticated weapons.

He however, expressed worry that some officers of the NCS, who should be civil and professional in their engagements in handling firearms have had series of alleged shootings of innocent citizens.

James Itodo, Edited By Grace Namiji