Suspected gunrunners, kidnappers, others paraded in Plateau
The task force maintaining law and order in Plateau State, Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), yesterday, paraded 37 suspects for various offenses ranging from gunrunning, kidnapping, armed robbery to militia activities.
The OPSH Commander, Mj. Gen. Augustine Agundu, said the suspects included a suspected gunrunners, one Sunday Bala, who had been on the watch list of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), and Yufus Ezekiel who had been on the task force’s watch list.
Gen. Agundu said Bala was arrested at his residence in Binta Gida Village in Mangu Local Government Area of the state with 13 locally made revolvers, three pistols, two Dane guns, six rounds of 7.62mm special and assorted tools for fabrication of firearms.
He said the suspect had been
in the illicit sale of firearms over a long period and that he also indulged in fabricating firearms for militia groups operating within and outside Plateau State.
Ezekiel, who was arrested at Maraban Jama’a, was allegedly found with two locally fabricated Ak47 rifles, two magazines and six rounds of 7.62mm concealed in a bag of corn.
“Preliminary investigations linked his (Ezekiel) atrocities to a serving staff of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Plateau State Command, Insp. Pam Musa, who is an accomplice in their dealings on illegal arms.
“Unfortunately, the inspector absconded on sighting troops, abandoning his car. The NSCDC has been contacted to arrest the inspector accordingly,” he said.
The commander also paraded 14 criminals arrested after a gun duel with troops of OPSH when they (troops) tried to investigate reports of an impending attack in Riyom by a group of armed militia concentrating in a forest along Kwi-Heipang Road.
He also said a raid on a hideout of suspected kidnappers in Kanfanin Zurak, Dakai, Laberi Aduwa and Bangalala in Wase Local Government Area of the state had led to the arrest of six suspects with guns, machetes and knives.
Gen. Agundu said preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects were into interstate crime and high profile kidnapping between Wase and Taraba State.
Sunday Sabo, a blacksmith, the suspected gunrunner, told our reporter that he was into fixing faulty rifles but that he never fabricated a rifle from the scratch and that he charged about N500 for each weapon and that his latest clients were from Boel in Mangu Local Government Area.