Posted by By Kazeem Ugbodaga on
Several AK-47 rifles and 130 packets of ammunition were, yesterday, found inside three bags of beans by men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), at Maza-Maza area of Mile 2, Lagos.
Several AK-47 rifles and 130 packets of ammunition were, yesterday, found inside three bags of beans by men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), at Maza-Maza area of Mile 2, Lagos.
The deadly goods were being conveyed in a taxi cab when police accosted the vehicle on the Maza-Maza bridge and made the shocking discovery. The suspected owner of the weapons escaped by jumping off the bridge into the lagoon, but the taxi driver was arrested.
The driver of the taxi, registered as Lagos XP 913 KRD, Mr. Lekan Ifonlaja, said the fleeing suspect hired his cab to convey the bags of beans to Berger area of Lagos.
The RRS men, who were on routine patrol of the area, had flagged down the driver but he ignored them, prompting them to shoot into the air, thus forcing him to stop.
Sensing danger, the owner of the goods, brought from Onitsha, in eastern Nigeria, fled. The curious policemen ripped open one of the bags of beans and found several AK-47 rifles concealed inside it. The driver was arrested and taken to the RRS headquarters at the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa.
An RRS source told P.M.News that a luxury bus from the eastern part of the country brought the three bags of beans to Lagos, after which the owner hired a taxi to convey the deadly goods to an unknown location.
The taxi driver, Ifonlaja, in handcuffs, at the RRS office, yesterday, denied knowing that weapons were hidden inside the bags of beans. He told P.M.News that he is duly registered with the taxi drivers' association in Lagos state, adding that he couldn't have involved himself in such a shady deal.
'I am a taxi driver and it is from this business I feed. The owner wanted me to take the three bags of beans to Berger. I don't know anything about the guns inside the bags,' he insisted.