ABUJA – The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Rilwan Disu, has identified the disruption of cross-border arms trafficking as critical to preventing electoral violence and ensuring peaceful, free and fair elections in Nigeria in 2027.
Disu stated this on Monday while declaring open a five-day Small Arms and Light Weapons Identification and Tracing (SALW-IT) Simulation Programme in Abuja.
The programme, scheduled for October 12 to 16, 2026, brings together security personnel and other participants from 12 African countries to strengthen regional cooperation in combating illicit arms proliferation.
The participating countries are Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, Mali, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger, Libya, Benin and the Republic of the Congo.
The training focuses on building participants’ capacity to identify, mark, register and trace small arms, light weapons and ammunition through technical sessions and practical exercises at the Nigeria Police Simulation Centre.
The IGP warned that the proliferation of illicit weapons posed a serious threat to Nigeria’s democratic process, noting that armed individuals and criminal groups often use such weapons to intimidate voters, attack political opponents, disrupt polling and target electoral officials and materials.
He observed that many illicit weapons entered countries through porous borders and established trafficking routes, stressing that no country could effectively tackle the challenge in isolation.
According to him, effective weapons identification and tracing would help investigators uncover trafficking networks, identify financiers and establish the routes through which illegal arms reached criminal groups.
He said disrupting these supply chains ahead of the 2027 general elections would strengthen security around polling units, protect electoral personnel and help create an environment conducive to credible elections.
Beyond electoral security, Disu noted that illicit arms continued to fuel terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and organised crime across Africa, making their proliferation a significant threat to regional peace and stability.
He called for stronger cooperation among African countries through timely intelligence sharing, coordinated investigations and mutual legal assistance to track down individuals involved in cross-border criminal activities.
The police chief emphasised that such collaboration must operate through established legal and institutional frameworks to prevent criminals from exploiting national borders to evade arrest and prosecution.
As part of broader efforts to address shared security concerns, Disu also disclosed plans for Inspectors-General of Police from West and East African countries to meet and deliberate on crime-related challenges and develop coordinated strategies against transnational criminal activities.
He said the outcomes of the training would be extended to frontline police officers through structured knowledge-sharing and further training across police commands and formations.
According to him, this would improve officers’ ability to identify and trace recovered weapons, generate actionable intelligence and support routine policing and election-security operations ahead of the 2027 polls.
The IGP commended the African Union Mechanism for Police Cooperation (AFRIPL), the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC), INTERPOL, relevant African Union entities and experts from the German Armed Forces Verification Centre for supporting the initiative.
He urged participants to maximise the opportunity to exchange professional experiences, strengthen institutional relationships and apply the skills acquired to address arms trafficking and other security threats in their respective countries.
Disu reaffirmed the Nigeria Police Force’s commitment to regional and continental efforts to control illicit arms, assuring that the Force would sustain institutional support and operational cooperation to translate the training into improved public safety.
He added that strengthening cooperation among African law enforcement agencies remained essential to tackling shared security challenges and securing a peaceful electoral process in Nigeria in 2027.