The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) on Thursday announced the arrest of four “notorious arm dealers”, the recovery of 57 AK-47 rifles and a large catchment of ammunition in Jos, Plateau State and from other locations across the country.
Force spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi, made this known in a statement made available to the press in Abuja.
He listed the suspects to include Hamza Zakari aka Hamzo aged 20, Abubakar Muhammed aka Fancy aged 22, Umar Ibrahim aged 25, and Muhammed Abdulkarim aka Dan-Asabe aged 37, all males and residents of Jos.
According to him, the suspects were arrested following a credible intelligence on their nefarious activities in Jos and its environs.
“The suspects, who confessed to their involvement in arms dealings and other criminal acts, have been identified as one of the major links for the supply of arms and ammunition to criminal elements terrorizing the state and some other parts of the country.
“The investigation team is on the trail of their accomplices and they are closing in on them,” the statement partly read.
It was titled, ‘Fighting insecurity: Police arrest seven suspected arms dealers in Jos, Taraba’
The statement added, “Similarly, operatives of the FIB-IRT acting on a tip-off have smashed and arrested three suspected gun runners in Ibi LGA of Taraba State. The suspects, Bello Sani, Venab Puncat and Yusuf Nahoda, all of Ibi Local Government Area of Taraba, during interrogation confessed to have purchased one AK47 rifle, and one SMG rifle at the cost of Nine Hundred Thousand Naira (N900,000).
“Concerted effort has been activated to arrest their collaborators and recover the exhibits.”
Adejobi noted that the arrested suspects will be arraigned in court upon conclusion of investigations.
He noted that the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, commended the successes recorded by the FIB-IRT, and reassured members of the public of his administration’s commitment to the fight against common enemies of the nation.
