The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Tunji Disu, has ordered a nationwide civil disarmament operation, ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Disu issued the directive during a courtesy visit to the Force Headquarters in Abuja by the Director – General of the National Centre For The Control Of Small Arms and Light Weapons, DIG Johnson Kokomo (rtd).

While expressing worries that illegally-manufactured small arms and light weapons were being transported across the country by road, and water, the IGP said operations aimed at dismantling arms manufacturing factories, as well as black markets, had been intensified.

Disu emphasised we have to talk to members of the public, we have to do advocacy… And most importantly, so that we can do civil disarmament; civil disarmament of people with illegal arms in their possession.

” We need to talk about it, we need to let people know that it is not only us putting on uniforms that are security operatives. “Everybody is the police, and the police are the com- munity, and the community are the police.“

So, everybody should know (that) anybody carry- ing illegal arms around, is going to use it on another citizen of the country”.

He continued: “So, all hands must be on deck to ensure that we recover all arms.

The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway has been renamed after President Bola Tinubu.

The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi who announced the naming said that the decision was taken by the Ministry of Works in recognition of President Tinubu’s ‘long-standing vision’ for the landmark project.

Besides, the minister disclosed that the President has approved an additional 400-kilometre extension to the country’s Fourth Legacy Highway, the 700km Akwanga–Jos–Bauchi–Maiduguri Superhighway to Taraba, increasing the project to 1,100 kilometres.

The minister spoke during a media briefing in Abuja, during which he described the approvals as major milestones in the federal government’s infrastructure renewal programme.

The United States House of Representatives has approved an amendment seeking to withhold 100 per cent of the country’s assistance to Nigeria until the federal government takes effective steps to prevent and respond to terrorism and violence, significantly tightening an earlier proposal that sought to suspend only half of the aid.

The amendment, sponsored by Representative Gregory Steube of Florida’s 17th Congressional District, was adopted by voice vote during consideration of the appropriations bill.

It raises the aid withholding threshold from 50 percent to 100 percent while retaining the requirement that the US Secretary of State certify that Nigeria has taken “effective steps to prevent and respond to violence and hold perpetrators accountable.”

Speaking on the House floor, Steube said the earlier proposal did not go far enough, alleging that the Nigerian federal government has failed to protect its citizens, especially Christians.

“I rise in strong support for my amendment to increase the withholding threshold for assistance to Nigeria, from 50 percent to 100 percent, while keeping in place benchmarks that demand Nigeria take effective steps to address the violence and persecution that continue to devastate the country,” he said.

(THISDAY)