Crime

Three female suspects nabbed over alleged possession of 818 rounds of ammunition

Published

June 24, 2020

Three female suspects nabbed over alleged possession of 818 rounds of ammunition.

The police on Wednesday said they had arrested three female suspects over failed alleged attempt to move 818 rounds of live ammunition from Kano State to Bayelsa.

The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Mr. Frank Mba, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, disclosed this at a media briefing in Abuja.

He said one of the suspects, 25, on the instruction of her husband, currently in detention by the military, handed over half bag of rice to another suspect, 21, for onward transportation to Bayelsa.

Mba said the 21-year-old suspect was expected on arrival in Bayelsa to handover the same consignment to another 30-year-old female suspect.

According to him, the half bag of rice has 818 rounds of live ammunition carefully concealed in it.

“They failed to realise that, just as they are planning, operatives working with other members of the community were monitoring activities at the motor park.

“When the 21-year-old suspect got to the park and about to board a vehicle, the bag of rice was opened and search conducted, the live ammunition were discovered,” he said.

Mba said out of the 818 rounds of live ammunition, 718 were made for General People Machine Gun and were in chains.

He said the quantity of arm could be used to wreck massive havoc to any community.

The FPRO said a total of 39 suspects, including the three females, were arrested over kidnapping, armed robbery, cattle rustling, and gun running.

According to him, apart from the rounds of live ammunition, a total of seven AK riffles, three pump actions, and other assorted weapons were also recovered from the suspects.

He expressed concerns that the bulk of kidnappers, cultists and armed robbers arrested in the country had formed the habits of using Nigeria Armed Forces camouflage.

Mba said the uniform had over the years been treasured because it represented the collective pride of Nigeria.

“This has become a general modus operandi for most of the criminals, and we will continue to work with our sister agencies and counterparts in the military to cut down the trend.

“We will take steps to ensure that the criminals don’t have easy access to the treasured symbol of Nigeria military myth,” he added.

He said the police had also arrested a suspect who specialised in car snatching by getting the driver drugged.

Mba said his modus operandi was to engage a taxi or a car hiring service, get to a preferred and safe destination point, and pretend to be waiting for somebody.

“As the waiting game is ongoing, he will pretend to be a nice and hospitable client, step outside, get two bottles of soft drinks of the same product.

“Keep the safe one for himself, and quickly, open and add some drug into the other bottle and serve the driver.

“Few seconds or minutes, depending on the body resistance of the driver, will slump into unconsciousness and the suspect will carefully carry the driver out of the car and drive it away,” he said.

The FPRO cautioned operators of taxi and car hire services against accepting drinks, food, gums, or any edible items from passengers they were not familiar with.

NAN