By Olusegun Emmanuel, Abuja.
As part of efforts to curtail possible escalation of terrorism in the country, the Senate has moved to ban the use and production of chemical weapons ingredients in the country.
The bill which was consequently referred to the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, was sponsored by the leader of the senate , senator Victor Ndoma Egba.
According to him ,the bill seeks to prohibit the development, production, transfer and use of chemical weapons in Nigeria and to establish a national authority for the effective implementation of the chemical weapons convention in Nigeria
He further explained that the bill will facilitate the destruction of all chemical weapons that may have been abandoned in the country. As of September 2013,around 82% of the declared stockpile of chemical weapons has been destroyed an indication thst the convention is yielding results
He also said the bill will facilitate the enforcement of the Prohibition in respect of persons within the territory of Nigeria and prevent,eliminate or reduce drastically the production and use of chemical weapons in the country and across the globe
He said: prevent untold suffering and annihilation of populations by preventing such weapons from getting into wrong hands like insurgents and terrorist groups or lunatic dictators”
“We live in uncertain times given the current security challenges of the nation and everything necessary must be done to prevent weapons of this kind from getting to the wrong hands”
Senator Smart Adeyemi said the bill is coming at a time the when the country is experiencing insecurity emanating from insurgency adding thst one of the challenges confronting the world is insecurity and efforts must be made to make the world a better and peaceful place
Senator Ibrahim Gobir lamented that five years ago nobody thought a Nigerian can bomb himself but today a Nigerian can bomb anybody.
In his remarks Senate President David Mark said in view of the current security challenges, the bill is long overdue
Mark said”This Bill is long over due because it covers two basic areas. One is for us to rectify the treaty which we are a party to and the second one is to prohibit the manufacture, production and distribution of chemical weapons. I have gone through the Bill. It is quite an important bill, very detailed and very comprehensive. But the reporting process seems rather cumbersome.
“I think for a Bill of this nature, we must make sure that we remove bureaucracy from the reporting system. Because if a report is one which there were so many people involved, then the end result will be that the report won’t get to where it ought to get to finally on time. This is not where you want that kind of long chain of reporting. On the whole I think it’s a good bill and we should all support it.”
