…Calls for safety awareness
Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices and Salute Nigeria Initiative, Finger off the trigger are strongly advocating for gun safety awareness, training and proper storage to keep Nigerian citizens safe.
The National Coordinator POCACOV CSP Ebere Amaraizu and the Convener of Salute Nigeria Initiative Chielo Ojerika said that there is need for Nigerians to eschew every form of violence involving the use of gun, as the world mark the non gun violence day.
They called for responsibility in the use of gun and support all relevant laws in Nigeria against firearm possession and firearm use act for gun safety.
CSP Amaraizu stated that gun violence is a growing national health crisis, causing thousands of deaths each year in Nigeria, more especially the insurgency in some parts of North East, North West, Central, Niger Delta area and agitations in the South East and communal crises, thuggery and armed robber in the South West and middle Belt areas.
The Convener of Salute Nigeria Initiative, Finger off the Trigger, Chielo Ojerika said that there are possibility of high risk of domestic violence when guns a freely used or owned.
Ojerika said that victims are five times more likely to be killed if the intimate partner owns a gun and advised that Nigerians should adhere to Police directives on surrounding firearms, as a loaded, unlocked firearm and household guns are a major source of weapons used in youth suicides, school shootings, cultism and accidental child deaths globally.
POCACOV and Finger off the Trigger equally urged law enforcement agents to ensure proper protocols in the use of firearms, during arrest and other law enforcement activities, to reduce casualty rate.
POCACOV, the IGP Abubakar Adamu Initiative is of the view that unemployment, low access to mental health care and financial stress at this period of the COVID-19 pandemic, may increase the tendency to violence with gun and advised Nigerians to be more responsible in the use of guns.
They called on Nigerians to support Gun Violence Awareness and Prevention initiative of POCACOV and Finger Off the Trigger.
They as well called for gun safety awareness, training and proper storage to keep the country safe and avoid accidental death and extra judicial killing as a result of abuse or misuse of gun.
