In a quiet community in Jos, north-central Nigeria, a middle-aged blacksmith uses an axe to scrape a tree branch into the shape of a rifle buttstock. Behind him, two young apprentices pump manual bellows and hammer glowing metal into form. Around the workshop lie iron scraps, unfinished gun parts and crafted stocks, evidence of a traditional craft quietly evolving into an illicit activity. Bitrus Pam, known locally as Oga, has long forged his craft as a blacksmith. But apart from farm tools, he now often designs and fabricates firearms, a more lucrative but illegal venture that has become an increasing concern in conflict-plagued Nigeria. In Nigeria, the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) is statutorily responsible for weapons production, but the law also allows licensed private firms, such as Proforce. Yet, alongside this official and lawful system, a shadow industry has taken root. Illegal networks, drawing on traditional blacksmithing skills and modern electric welding, are producing arms beyond regulatory control. SPONSOR AD According to security officials interviewed for this investigation, arrests and raids reveal not only the spread of these clandestine workshops but also growing sophistication in their ability to imitate industrial firearms. They warn that locally fabricated weapons are increasingly finding their way into the hands of armed groups and criminal networks, and at least one bandit kingpin told this investigation that his group’s arms were sourced from these illicit workshops. The growing influence of indigenous gunsmiths Gaining a rare access, this investigation involved a review of case and arrest records, in addition to interviews with security officials, complemented by reporting trips to workshops across Plateau and Niger states over weeks and interviews with actors directly involved. According to one record, when security agents arrested 33-year-old Michael Dung in 2023, they discovered his home in Vom, Jos South LGA of Plateau State had been turned into an illegal gun fabrication factory. Dung, who was arrested alongside his landlord, had been fabricating and selling weapons for six years before his arrest. His landlord, Yusuf Pam, later admitted he knew the activity was illegal. Security operatives attached to Operation Safe Haven, now rebranded Operation Enduring Peace, described Dung as an illegal producer of different calibres of locally fabricated weapons, many of which he sold to criminals in different parts of the country. Dung’s arrest was not an isolated case. Security agents have since dismantled multiple gun fabrication factories. In January, troops of Sector 2, Joint Task Force Operation Whirl Stroke, uncovered an illegal arms factory in Nasarawa State, where they recovered six locally fabricated pistols and tools used in weapon production. Last September, soldiers raided a workshop at Heipang in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, seizing 12 fabricated weapons, including rifles and pistols. While the full-scale of illicit local production remains uncertain, security forces have raided at least one such illegal arms workshop annually since 2019. Operators are often young persons with technical skills capable of producing rifles, pistols and in some cases, weapons resembling AK-pattern firearms. Experts warn that Nigeria’s struggle against terrorism, secessionist agitation, banditry, communal and farmer–herder conflicts, as well as armed robbery, and cultism are compounded by the widespread availability of small arms and light weapons. Researchers further warn that locally crafted weapons remain a significant source of illicit arms, with armed groups from diverse backgrounds increasingly relying on indigenous production to sustain their violent operations. Since 2019, arrest patterns and military assessments consulted for this investigation suggest that Plateau State has emerged as a major hub for illicit fabrication of small and light weapons, although cases have also been recorded in Delta, Kaduna, Enugu, Benue, Lagos, Jigawa and Nasarawa states. Based on raid data gathered from media reports, Nigeria’s security forces have raided at least 18 illegal gun factories nationwide in the last six years. The data, which is just on the arrests of gun fabricators and raids of illegal gun factories, does not include the dozens of gun traffickers arrested either in transit or in their hideouts. Out of the 18 reported raids, seven factories were in Plateau State, three in Delta State and two each in Enugu and Kaduna states. The remaining states of Lagos, Benue, Jigawa and Nasarawa recorded one incident each. Security experts say demand is the driver, with prevailing general insecurity and worsening hardship in the country. “This shadow economy has ready buyers,” said Gabriel Ad’Ofikwu, a retired Major and security analyst, adding that “there cannot be illegal fabricators without the demand for it.” How the weapons are made Suspects, according to security operatives, are often blacksmiths, welders or graduates of technical colleges trained in metal fabrication. “In Kwan Pan LGA of Plateau State, we uncovered a blacksmith who once specialised in crafting farming tools but later turned to producing firearms without a license,” said a military source who asked to remain anonymous because he had no clearance to speak on the issue. He said recent arrests in Plateau State suggest a broader trend: “Electric welders are increasingly shifting into clandestine weapons fabrication, selling their work to criminal networks. Also, among the suspects we have arrested are graduates of technical schools where they learn electric welding and are now applying it illegally.” Investigators say materials are sourced from everyday markets. “They use metals, iron water pipes, gas cylinders and welding equipment, most of it purchased where building materials are sold,” another military officer said, adding that in some cases, gunsmiths repurpose motorcycle exhaust springs to assemble pistols. “Some construct weapons from scratch, while others adapt original components, such as the skeletal frame of a foreign-made AK-47, modifying it into a new firearm.” From workshops to criminal groups These craft weapons are typically produced in clandestine workshops or within homes, where anonymity is tightly guarded. Because admitting to owning or fabricating an unlicensed firearm is a self‑incriminating act, many of those who spoke to this reporter did so under the cloak of anonymity. Nigeria harbours 40 per cent of the over 500 million illegal small arms and light weapons circulating in West Africa, and security agents argue that increased border controls, aimed at curbing the influx of illegal firearms has attracted criminals to local gun fabricators. Though the volume of locally manufactured weapons in the country remains uncertain, a 2018 briefing paper of Small Arms Survey on craft weapons in Nigeria, referenced preliminary findings from the National Small Arms and Light Weapons Survey (NSALWS), which discovered “about one-fifth (17%) of civilian rural weapons-holders countrywide, possess craft weapons and one-tenth in urban areas.” According to a military officer familiar with the situation, underground fabricators are seizing on foreign supply gap, offering their wares to criminal actors eager for alternatives. “So, in the absence of foreign weapons or where they are too expensive to buy, insecurity feeds on local production,” he said. This link was also made in a 2025 interview with bandit kingpin, Kachalla Mati, who recounted how security agents intercepted locally made weapons that his gang had paid to be delivered from Plateau to Zamfara State. Mati said they had agreed to pay N1 million and had sent N800,000 via Point of Sale (POS), with a promise to pay the balance on delivery, but the transporter had been arrested, and the guns never made it to him. But security agents say many locally fabricated weapons have made their way into the hands of non-state criminals, evidently seen when they engage them during combat operations. In November 2025, the Chief of Staff, Operation Enduring Peace, Brigadier General Senlong Sule, corroborated this when he told journalists that many of the fabricated weapons end up in the hands of criminals. While reacting to questions on whether weapons could be fabricated for community protection or defence purposes, Brig. Gen Sule said, “90 per cent of these arrests point to the use of fabricated weapons for criminality and end up in the hands of militias.” He further said: “It is either they use it, or they sell it to the criminals. I was shocked when a suspect we arrested said all the weapons and ammunition he had produced were handed over to militias.” Supporting his position, another military personnel in Plateau State said: “We have seen these weapons even among bandits here in Plateau State when we engage them,” adding that most worrisome is the fact that “the mechanics of many locally fabricated AK47 weapons are the same as those of their imported counterparts,” the officer explained. “They fire the same rounds, and many fire automatic.” He said the suspect they arrested in Heipang with 12 assorted fabricated weapons had confessed to selling his rifles to anyone who could afford it, including bandits and other criminals. Why demand persists Some communities view local firearm production as self-defence. “These weapons are mostly fabricated to protect and defend communities against bandits,” said a vigilante leader in Plateau State who defended the production of firearms as a form of community service in times of attacks. “Afterall, even the security agents and government say security is everybody’s business, and so communities started to find ways to defend themselves.” However, Section 23 of the Firearms Act prohibits the unlawful manufacture, assembly, or repair of firearms and ammunition, while Section 28 (iv) imposes a minimum sentence of ten years for offenders. Sections 24 and 25 of the Act empower the Inspector-General of Police, or with the consent of the Governor of the State, to grant a permit to any person to carry on the business of the manufacture and repair of firearms, and to maintain a register of such permits in force. Security agents say this legal framework explains why hunters and vigilante groups are allowed to move around with specific licensed firearms, but illegal fabrication remains punishable. Bitrus Pam, the Vigilante Commander of troubled Barikin Ladi LGA in Plateau, said the Nigerian Police Force had granted them a licence to carry specific firearms after they were vetted by the Department of State Services (DSS) in 2018. Pam admits to the growing fabrication of illegal weapons in Plateau’s Barikin Ladi, Jos south, Mangu and Bokkos, but said there are ongoing advocacy against the practice while equally monitoring the activities of blacksmiths and welders. But military officials overseeing security in the state report that community complicity in protecting criminals has emboldened local fabricators. “It is very rare for communities to provide information about local gun fabricators, even though they live among them. Many locals see the fabricators as part of them, not minding that they are selling these guns to people who could use them to harm them,” said a military source. Explaining why some communities resort to stockpiling weapons for protection, Ad’Ofikwu, the security analyst, described it as a symptom of the broad security problem. He added that to address this, the country must review its security architecture to bridge the gap between incidents and reaction time, especially at the local level. In Niger State, some vigilante members reveal that they now have the capacity to fabricate their own firearms even though the government has given them strict instructions not to carry or fabricate the AK-pattern and other high-calibre rifles. The surge in banditry across the state and across northern Nigeria has heightened the demand for local policing measures, thereby reinforcing the argument for arming vigilante personnel. “We can fabricate guns that fire three to nine times. There is another one that can fire up to 12 times, and we manufacture these rifles by ourselves,” said a vigilante official who asked not to be named. Another revealed that they source their guns from blacksmiths and a welder who is highly skilled in fabricating and repurposing high-calibre rifles. Though the welder declined to speak with this reporter, his colleagues described him as a highly skilled gunsmith who also services and repairs industrially produced weapons. While the vigilante leaders insist their gunsmiths operate under strict regulations, there is rarely any guarantee that their crafts will not slip into the hands of criminals. Curbing craft production Nigeria’s Defence Minister, retired General Christopher Musa, has proposed harnessing the technical skills of local fabricators to support lawful production, thereby dismantling the illicit industry. While inspecting a cache of locally produced firearms seized by the military in Plateau State, General Musa, who was then the Chief of Defence Staff, said such talents could be used positively as long as the youths present themselves to the government. He stated that the Federal Government has authorised DICON to collaborate with skilled locals, ensuring their talents are harnessed constructively rather than exploited by criminals. “We noticed that in Plateau State, especially, we have people who are talented in the fabrication of weapons, so we want them to come out so we can register them, then take them to DICON, and with time, we can start producing the Nigerian kinds of rifles,” he said. Major Ad’Ofikwu agrees with this suggestion and says one of the ways to gradually mop up the supply chain will be to engage local fabricators. “If we want to control this, we don’t go with a government attitude; we will not get results. I think what we need to do is to develop a positive disposition. If they get found out, arrested or turn themselves in, the government should come out with a non-criminal tagging policy,” he said. “There are instances that people have been arrested for fabricating either the AK-pattern weapons or the Beretta pistol or even high-calibre weapons like the RPG, and you discover that the only difference between what they have done and what is imported from the developed countries will be the serial numbers on them,” he said. He, however, emphasised that individuals who manufacture firearms in commercial quantities for sale to criminals, who then turn these weapons against communities, must be arrested and brought to justice. This report was commissioned with support from the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) under a journalism support initiative funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Nigeria.