The National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, says a sizeable number of illicit arms being used to commit crimes in the country belonged to the government, stating that such were being transferred to the terrorists, bandits and other non-state actors by security agents.

Ribadu, who condemned those unpatriotic acts, also rained curses on the security personnel who facilitate the movement of weapons to terrorists, saying that any officer caught in the act going forwarded would regret the action.

He spoke at the Muhammadu Buhari Cantonment, Giri, Abuja, during the arms destruction exercise organised by the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW).

Report says illicit weapons worth billions of naira found their ways into the country 23 times within seven years, with whereabouts of many of them unknown.

Also on Thursday, at least 2,400 unserviceable, obsolete and recovered illicit arms were destroyed during the exercise which had in attendance the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, other members of the top echelon of the military, as well as other stakeholders.

Speaking before he set the illicit arms ablaze, the NSA stressed that the weapons ended up in the hands of non-state actors due to corrupt elements within the security agencies, insisting that the government would do everything possible to ensure that the country is safe.