LAGOS, April 6 (Xinhuanet) -- The Nigerian government has destroyed 2,738 small arms and 5,368 ammunition this week in Port Harcourt, the heartland of the OPEC country's troubled Niger Deltaregion.

    The excise on Tuesday, part of the efforts since last November to rid the oil-rich delta of illegal arms, brought the number of small arms destroyed to 4,678 and the number of ammunition to 8,256.

    According to local newspaper Vanguard on Wednesday, Defense Minister Rabiu Kwankwaso described it as "the highest single destruction ever."

    This showed that "the war against the proliferation of illegal arms and ammunition is being won by the government," he declared.

    And the government will continue to do whatever is necessary to"recover and destroy illegally acquired arms in order to engender a peaceful and secured environment for socio-political, economic and cultural development," he added.

    The Niger Delta region is home to a majority of oil reserves inAfrica's top crude producer but gripped by frequent violence whichclaims about 1,000 lives per year. Enditem