On this day, May 25 in 2011, Nigerian Army destroyed a large cache of arms and explosives recovered by the Niger Delta Amnesty programme of the Federal Government at Lokpanta, near Enugu State.
According to reports, the weapons recovered include 1,798 rifles, 1,981 guns of various types, 70 rocket propelled grenades, 159 pistols and one spear from Bayelsa, Edo and Delta states.
Speaking on the recovery of weapons, the Coordinator of the Task Force, Air Vice Marshal James Gbum, said they were from the militants who were excluded from the last two phases of the amnesty programme.
According to him, there were serious agitations by some ex-militants who claimed that they also surrendered their arms and ammunition to the joint task force and other security agencies but were excluded from the programme.
“It was in response to these claims that President Goodluck Jonathan approved additional 3 ,642 slots for ex-militants who genuinely surrendered arms to security agencies,” he said.
Mr. Gbum said the task force, among other things, was mandated to recover all retrieved arms and ammunition to the 82 Division, Enugu, for subsequent destruction in line with the UN Disarmament, Demobilisation and Re-integration rules.
The coordinator gave a breakdown of the weapons to include 482 automatic arms, 20,132 ammunition, 295 magazines and 18,971 locally made arms.
Receiving the weapons, the General Officer Commanding the 82 Division, Maj.-Gen. Adebayo Olaniyi, commended President Jonathan for taking another giant stride in the amnesty programme.
