Nigeria Accuses Eastern Europe over Arms in Niger Delta
From Damilola Oyedele in Abuja, 10.12.2007
The Federal Government has traced the proliferation of illegal arms in the troubled Niger Delta to some countries in the Eastern bloc.
This, according to government, has made security control and conflict resolution in the area a lot more challenging.
The problem in the oil rich Niger Delta has become more intractable with the advent of militant groups taking foreign nationals working in the area hostage every now and then.
And allegations abound that militant groups, usually armed with sophisticated weapons, are being supplied arms by some foreign countries.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bagudu Hirse, made the accusation in a press release made available to THISDAY yesterday in Abuja.
He specifically fingered countries in the eastern bloc behind the arms deal in the Niger Delta.
Some of the countries in the Eastern bloc particularly Russia played active role in the proliferation of arms across the African continent in the days of the cold war.
According to the release, Hirse was speaking at the 10th Anniversary of the Mine Ban Conventions which recently ended in Oslo, Norway.
The minister urged the meeting to examine the destructive effects of illicit trade in small arms and light weapons on the social and economic aspirations globally, especially in the developing countries.
He implored the meeting to rise up to curb the illegal arms trade in order to advance developmental objectives of developing countries.
Hirse observed that the Anti-Personnel Mines Treaty which came into force in 1999 had yielded significant dividends as Nigeria destroyed a total of 3,364 anti-personnel mines that were retained strictly for military training purposes, between November 2004 and February 2005.
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and their destruction is an international agreement that seeks to ban the use, development production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines by member-states.
Negotiated under the Ottawa process, the convention came into force on 1st March 1999.
It was established as a result of the enormous humanitarian consequences associated with the use of those weapons, the agreement was signed by a total of 133 states while 153 others, including Nigeria, have formally agreed to conform to the dictates of the convention.
