Nigeria police has stopped issuing gun licenses, says IGP
The Police high command has said it has stopped giving licenses for small arms in the country.
The IGP, Kayode Egbetokun, made the disclosure while responding to questions from newsmen during his meeting with AIG’s, Commissioners of Police at the headquarters, Abuja.
“We are mopping up arms in circulation. There are too many arms in circulation and if we continue to issue licenses on arms, we may continue to aggravate the problems we are trying to solve,” Egbetokun said.
“For now, there is temporary ban on issuance of firearms. We May review it later, but we are not issuing firearms licenses nationwide now.”
The Firearm Act has been responsible for the control of firearms in Nigeria for the past years.
The Act provides that no person shall have in his possession or under his control, any firearm or ammunition except such person has a license from the President or the Inspector General of Police.
Meanwhile, the immediate past Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola has asked the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to probe a claim that he and some All Progressives Congress (APC) lawyers are drafting the judgment for the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is also seeking an investigation of further allegations that he not only supervised the rigging of the 2023 Presidential election in favour of President Bola Tinubu, but that he also wrote the judgment for Judges in the 2019 election tribunal that sealed Muhammadu Buhari Presidential election victory.
He requested the Police chief “to cause the publications to be investigated with utmost urgency and seriousness” noting that they have implications not only for his person but also for the “independence, impartiality, and integrity” of the judiciary.
He reasoned that the publications could be part of a wider campaign to undermine the judiciary “by those who seek to manipulate the judicial institution for their own gain.”
Fashola made the request in an August 7 letter written on his behalf by his Abuja-based counsel Olanrewaju Akinsola of Priory Terrace Solicitors.
The former Lagos State Governor attributed the primary sources of the allegations to social media posts by one Jackson Ude and Reportera.ng.
Fashola had, in a statement on August 7, vehemently denied the allegations describing them as “baseless”, and “defamatory” and condemned the individuals behind them, referring to them as agents of destabilization.
In the letter to the IGP, Mr. Akinsola said: “The attention of our Client has been drawn to a tweet published on Wednesday, 2 August 2023 on microblogging site, X [formerly known as Twitter] by one Jackson Ude tweeting under the handle of @jacksonpbn with the headline.) EXPOSED: FASHOLA IS WRITING PEPT JUDGEMENT FOR JUDGES.
“The said Jackson Ude went on to publish and state that: ‘Former Lagos Governor and former Minister for Works, Babatunde Fashola and some APC lawyers are allegedly writing the judgment Bola Tinubu and APC intend to hand over to the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, PEPT, to adopt.
‘Fashola who is alleged to have supervised the rigging of the 2023 Presidential election in favour of Tinubu, was also alleged to have written the judgment for Judges in the 2019 election Tribunal that sealed Mohammadu Buhari Presidential election victory.
‘The former Lagos Governor has remained quiet since after the elections but has been keeping close tabs with Judges handling the Presidential elections petition.
‘The Election Tribunal has adopted all final addresses but has yet to announce a date for judgment. Fashola, according to informants, is working day and night to conclude his proposed judgment and band over ta the PEPT Judges.
‘The judges aside monetary compensations have been promised elevation to the Supreme Court should they accept Fashola’s version.’”
Akinsola noted that the publication was accompanied by Fashola’s portrait and that of the Presiding Justice of the Presidential Election Petition Court, Justice Haruna S. Tsammani, who is an Appeal Court judge.
He said since Ude’s publication of the tweet via his Twitter handle, it has “generated more than 120,000 views. The tweet has been retweeted 1,437 times, it has been liked 1,325 times, it has been quoted 186 times, and it has been bookmarked 49 times as of 8.30pm on Sunday, 6 August 2023.
