Date: 2018-03-04

A group, Cultural and Societal Value for Development Initiative (CSVDI) has raised the alarm over the proliferation of arms in the country.

The group said if the trend is not immediately checked by the federal government, it portends grave danger for the 2019 general elections.

It urged the federal government to immediately tackle the proliferation of arms among suspected herdsmen in the country to forestall their being used to frustrate the general elections.

"If prompt action is not taken, we wait to host war-some resistors of free and fair election in the nation; sufficient are the local thugs" the group said in a statement issued in Ilorin, Kwara state. The group in a statement signed by its secretary, Jide Olaoye also warned against the recourse to cattle colonies as a way out of the violent clashes between herdsmen and farmers, saying government should rather allow individual herdsmen to pursue their businesses as allowed by law.

It recommended that the government should rise squarely to meeting force with the cattle rustlers in the same capacity as against Boko Haram and the militants in some parts of the country.

"The government should respect the principle of economic privatisation: provide a free and secure atmosphere for all occupations and leave the operators to negotiating their existences in their locations of operation.