Tin Can Port Rifles Importation Saga: Arms Centre DG Dissociates Ribadu
The Director-General of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, DIG Johnson Kokumo (retd), has dismissed allegations contained in a viral video claiming that persons arrested over the seizure of illegal arms at the Tin Can Island Port were being sponsored by the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday in Abuja during the joint security spokespersons’ briefing, Kokumo explained that he was personally present at the Tin Can Island Port when the Nigerian Customs Service handed over 399 assorted automatic weapons intercepted at the port to the centre.
He said, “The story in the video is not correct and cannot be correct. I was at the Tin Can Island Port with the Comptroller-General. 399 assorted automatic weapons were intercepted by the Nigerian Customs Service at the port. And this cache of arms, illegal weapons, handed over to the centre.
“I was not there in a representative capacity; I was there personally. And the Comptroller-General, of course, was also present personally to do the handing over,” he said.
He also disclosed that the Federal Government had continued to destroy recovered illicit weapons to prevent them from being diverted back into the hands of criminal and non-state actors, noting that the destruction was in line with international conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory, including agreements under the United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS.
“And of course, another reason for destroying them is to also ensure that the weapons so recovered do not find their ways back into the hands of non-state actors for use on innocent citizens of Nigeria,” he said.
The Director-General said the Second Quarter Arms Destruction Exercise for 2026, conducted on July 30 at the Muhammadu Buhari Cantonment, Giri, Abuja, resulted in the public destruction of 1,419 illicit weapons, bringing the cumulative number of illicit weapons destroyed by the centre since 2022 to more than 19,000.
Kokumo said the destruction was part of efforts by the Federal Government to prevent the possession and use of illicit weapons by non-state actors involved in terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent crimes.
He also disclosed that the centre had received 5,050 illicit, unserviceable, decommissioned and obsolete assorted automatic weapons retrieved from the Nigeria Police Force in June 2026.
