Ebonyi state government on Sunday explained why it banned a security group identified as National Taskforce to Combat Illegal Importation and Light Weapon (NATFORCE) pushing for mopping up of arms in the state.
State Commissioner for Internal Security and Border Peace Dr. Kenneth Ugbala who spoke to newsmen in Abakaliki on the disbandment said only Police, DSS and Army were given mandate to carry out such activity.
Ugbala said: “when NATFORCE wrote to us that they want to be in operation in Ebonyi state, we subjected them to the security agencies like the police, DSS for them to identify with them because if a group
would be in charge of arm mopping, they must have strong synergy with professional organization like police, army and DSS who are primarily in charge of security.
“Secondly, our preliminary investigations show that they are operating in factions even at the National level, they have two factions and their matter is still in the court. So, we don’t know their mandate .we don’t know which factions is bgenuine.
“So, we cannot allow Ebonyi people to be deceived because we have had several reports of people who were asked to pay money for training;N5,000, N7,000 and N10,000 for uniform. All these things are without the knowledge of Ebonyi state government
“The security agencies have been complaining because they don’t understand their mandate. The type of assignment they want to undertake is very sensitive; arm mopping in rural areas. The arm that will be mopped, where will it go to assuming there is arm? What gave them that mandate to mop arms?”
