Igbeaku Orji 
Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, has been called upon to cooperate with the Federal Government to eliminate or at least reduce the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the country.
Governor Otti told the visiting South East Zonal Director of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, Captain Chris Anusiem, that he will continue to work with the relevant Federal Government Agencies to deal with the menace.
He observed that almost all crimes are committed with small arms and light weapons and stressed that unless decisive action was taken, peace and security would be far from being achieved.
“I want to assure you that the Abia State Government and the people will cooperate with you and work with you to ensure that you succeed in your assignment.
“Virtually, all the crimes you see around are committed with light weapons and small arms. If we don’t eliminate them, or at least reduce them to the barest minimum, then we cannot have peace.
He said that security is central to everything his Government is doing, reiterating that the issue of security cannot be dealt with in silos.
According to the Governor, “everybody must work together. One of the things we have here is that we have security agencies whose heads and everybody work together.
“We also, like you rightly pointed out, are working with sister States, so that somebody does not commit a crime here and then take off to a neighbouring State, and that place becomes a haven for him, Gov. Otti stated.
The new South East Zonal Director of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, Captain Chris Anusiem, had earlier said that he was in the State for a familiarisation visit, having been newly posted to Enugu to head the South East Zonal office and assured Governor Alex Otti of collaboration to keep the State safe from crimes.
He explained that the vision of the agency is to promote an arms-free society, saying that, “Here in the Sahel, our problem is that of small arms in the hands of non-state actors”,
Captain Anusiem, while commending the Governor for his efforts in maintaining peace in Abia State, solicited his support and said that, it is going to be a collective effort to stop the menace of proliferation of arms.
