Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, Professor Itse Sagay has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to permit ordinary citizens to wield guns to protect themselves.
Sagay said it has become imperatives for the government to allow citizens bear arms to defend themselves when attacked since it has become submerged by various security threats such as Boko Haram, insurgency banditry, kidnapping, etc Daily Independent reports.
According to Sagay, unprovoked attacks, especially on villages by armed bandits, will greatly reduce across the country if the villages are permitted to bear firearms to defend themselves.
He said, “All sorts of things are happening nowadays. You have kidnappers, bandits, Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram. The reality is that there is nowhere that is safe in the country. Travelling by road today is a very risky endeavour that one will hardly try. So, there is a total insecurity in the country.
“Individuals no longer feel safe outside their own house. I am not even sure that one is safe in his own home.
“What I will like to suggest to the government is that it should allow ordinary Nigerians to carry arms. Everybody who wants to bear arms as a form of self-defence should be allowed to do so. This is necessary so that when these bandits and miscreants attack them, they will know that the person they attacked can defend himself.
He added, “All these restrictions on owning weapons should be lifted. Let the public be allowed to own weapons, especially in all those villages where they are being massacred. Their men should be given weapons so that when the attackers come, they will also be given a challenge which may discourage them in future.”