Nigeria Army to Establish A Domestic Weapon Production
The Nigerian President,President Muhammadu Buhari who was sworn in to power in may 29th, 2015 have told the ministry of defence to develop a "modest military industrial complex,"said by Mr.president.For Nigeria the giant of Africa to have been battling with the militant islamist group Boko Haram for past six month and the government of the US has refused to equipped Nigeria with weapon to Nigeria citing human rights abuse.
News highlights BBC Africa
President Buhari urged the newly graduated military officers that Nigeria "must evolve viable mechanisms for near-self-sufficiency" in defence equipment that it usually imports.
Mr Buhari said, On a visit to Washington last month, that the US had "aided and abetted" Boko Haram in the past by refusing to sell weapons to Nigeria.The government US law prevents the selling of arms to countries which fail to tackle human rights abuses.
A group of visiting US Congress members said On Tuesday Washington could lift its ban on shipping arms to Nigeria's military if the country improved its human rights data record.
It was made known that the US's stance has effectively stopped all the Western countries from selling sophisticated military hardware to the country Nigeria, the BBC's Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi reports from the capital, Abuja.
The only Nigeria weapon factory in the northern city of Kaduna mainly produces rifles and civilian tools, Mr Buhari's spokesman Garba Shehu told the Reuters news agency.He said that defence chiefs had now been asked to "re-engineer" it.
Boko Haram since 2009 has killed over 10,000 people and has equally kidnapped hundreds of girls and womaen.
The human right group last said that some 8,000 men and boys had died in Nigeria military custody after being detained as one of the suspected militants.
This allegation was rejected by the military but Mr.Buhari promised an investigation, although there have been no further details.
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