By Olasunkanmi Akoni & Monsur Olowoopejo
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and his Rivers State counterpart, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, Thursday blamed the proliferation of arms in the country on failure of the Federal Government to effectively police the borders.

Fashola and Amaechi made the remarks at the Lagos Business School Alumni Association National Conference, in Lagos.

They both submitted that it was high time the citizenry of the country held the Federal Government responsible for arms proliferation, adding that the trend is responsible for increasing spate of violence in the country

According to Fashola, there is no licensed company producing arms in the country apart from local dane guns manufactured  by local blacksmith, noting that every other sophisticated guns were imported into the country through the borders.

He said the massive shipment of arms discovered at the nation’s ports recently in Lagos was one of the numerous cases of arms importation into the country’s ports which ought to be under watch of security agencies and Customs.

Fashola said crime had become increasingly difficult to control in the country because of the high level of sophisticated arms at the disposal of the robbers and hoodlums terrorising the country, urging the Federal Government to do something urgently about the lapses.

Governor Rotimi Amaechi in his remark said the issue of security had become a global challenge, adding that suicide bombing, plane hijacking, violent armed robbery and kidnapping spree happening all over the country were indices of the ugly trend.

Amaechi lamented that the country might not come out of the woods in the nearest future, noting that majority of the people do not abhor corrupt and other vices that have constituted a clog in the wheel of national development.