Whistle-blowing: FG Seeks To Extend Policy on Illegal Weapons

The Presidency is drawing up whistleblower policy to focus on gun owner­ship and control in the country in avid to eradicate illegal own­ership of small arms and light weapons .
A statement issued by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, yesterday said the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) will handle it.

This follows the success recorded by the policy recently in uncovering illicit cash hid­den by government officials.
Shehu disclosed that in line with Presidential directives, the NSA, Babagana Munguno, has begun work on a template for the discovery and recovery of illegal weapons through a re­ward system following the suc­cess of the whistleblower policy under the Ministry of Finance.
He explained further:
“The ONSA Initiative may be an independent line of in­quiry or in active collaboration with what the government is doing in Finance. This will be a sort of searchlight on weap­ons ownership in the coun­try. Whatever form or shape it takes, the administration wants to take a tough line to curtail the large number of il­legal weapons in circulation used in intra and inter-com­munal conflicts.
“The aim is to disarm com­munities especially those with proclivity to violence.”
The ONSA which already has a committee on the re­covery of small arms and light weapons in the country has decided to adopt the whistle­blower approach so as to eradi­cate mass shooting incidents and remove the harassment of law abiding citizens by holders of illegal weapons.