Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Lucky Irabor has faulted the directive given by Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle to residents to bear arms in a bid to protect themselves against bandits.
Irabor said the instruction was not right because the Armed Forces and other security agencies were handling the challenges posed by criminal elements.
He also said Matawalle does not have the power to make such a pronouncement.
The CDS made his view known at the opening of the Joint Exercise for the National Defence College and War Colleges of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, code-named “Exercise Grand Nationale,” in Abuja.
The governor had in a statement by the Information Commissioner, Ibrahim Dasara, at the weekend said the Police Commissioner, Ayuba Elkana, had been directed to issue licenses to people to carry arms.
Irabor, who said police commissioners had no power to issue licenses for people to bear arms, emphasized that security agencies are only “instruments of policy implementation.
He said: “If what I read is true, I do not also think that the governor has the power to instruct the commissioner of police to issue licenses, because the commissioner of police does not have the powers to issue licenses,”
