In Niger State, three suspected gunrunners were apprehended, and over 567 rounds of live ammunition were recovered from them.
Monday Bala Kuryas, the state Commissioner of Police, revealed this while arraigning the suspects in Minna, saying they’d confessed to the crime.
According to CP Kuryas, Muhammadu Bello, 32, and Nura Umar, 30, both of Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi State, were arrested in their vehicle by the Police Safer Highway while on patrol along the Makera-Mokwa road.
According to him, the aforementioned driver (Bello) refused to stop at the checkpoint for a routine check, but after a hot pursuit by the Police team to Sabon Makera village, they abandoned the vehicle and took to their heels.
He did, however, explain that the two suspects were later apprehended with the assistance of the community.
During the vehicle search, the following items were discovered: two (2) AK-47 rifles, two (2) AK-49 rifles, sixteen (16) magazines, four hundred and seventeen (417) rounds of 7.62 calibre live ammunition, and one hundred and fifty (150) rounds of RPG live ammunition.
When questioned, they claimed that the arms were being transported from Sokoto to one Yellow in Mokwa.
The guns comprised six double-barrel and eight triple barrel guns.
“Sani confessed that the guns were given to him by a local fabricator called Bilya to deliver to one Bulus of Guffanti village and that he was given the commission of N1,000 on each gun if he delivered them successfully.
” Effort is ongoing to apprehend Bilya and Bulus who are currently at large.
“All the cases are under investigation while suspects will be arraigned in court for prosecution as soon as investigation is concluded,” he added.
