Nigerians should be allowed to carry weapons to defend themselves, Sagay tells Buhari

The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay (SAN), has urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to allow Nigerians carry weapons to protect themselves against unprovoked attacks.

Sagay who said this on Wednesday, added that since the government was overburdened by “various security challenges such as Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and herdsmen attacks”, it was imperative for Nigerians to carry arms to defend themselves whenever they are attacked.

Sagay insisted that the series of unprovoked attacks on villages by bandits will reduce drastically if the communities were allowed to arm themselves with weapons to defend their communities.

“The country has become so dangerous. All sorts of things are happening nowadays. You have kidnappers, bandits, herdsmen and Boko Haram insurgency,” he said.

Continuing, the professor of law said:

Read also: Only corrupt Nigerians question Buhari’s anti-corruption war —Sagay

“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.

“I don’t know what has gone wrong, why our people have become so violent and savage. 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.

“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.”

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