National Security Adviser Babagana Munguno has begun work on a template for the discovery and recovery of illegal weapons through a reward system.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity confirmed this development in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.
According to Garba Shehu, the Office of National Security Adviser, ONSA, is adopting the whistle-blowing approach to eradicate mass shooting incidents and remove the harassment of law abiding citizens by holders of illegal weapons.
The proposed adoption of the whistle-blowing policy on illegal weapons followed the success of the policy in the recovery of huge amount of questionable and stolen funds by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The presidency had started drawing up the rules of a whistle-blower mechanism to throw a spotlight on the regime of gun ownership and control as a bold move to prevent and eradicate illegal ownership of small arms and light weapons in the country.
Shehu said that this would be a sort of searchlight on weapons ownership in the country, adding that the aim was to disarm communities especially those with proclivity to violence.
“In the last few days, we had discussed the efforts the administration is making to strengthen the whistle-blower mechanism in the ministry of finance, which to date has proved to be very effective in bringing the attention of the government to stolen assets and unexplained wealth.
“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,’’ he said.
A committee saddled with the responsibility of the recovery of small arms and light weapons in the country is already in place.