Posted by By MURPHY GANAGANA, Abuja on
A police constable has spilled the beans on an unholy gun-running deal between some policemen, including an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and armed robbers operating mostly in the northern parts of the country.
A police constable has spilled the beans on an unholy gun-running deal between some policemen, including an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and armed robbers operating mostly in the northern parts of the country.
Police Constable Musa Waziri says for almost two years, he has been a courier of arms and ammunition for a syndicate of armed robbers in connivance with some of his superior officers.
Waziri, a police armourer attached to Kawo Division of the Kaduna State Command, said that for the period of their satanic alliance with men of the underworld, he sold a packet of live ammunition containing 20 rounds for between N300 and N500.
But he blamed his predicament on abject poverty, which he said, pushed him into selling police weapons to robbers, especially when he lacked food in his home sometimes for up to three days.
The bubble burst penultimate week following the arrest of one Mallam Yahaya Sule, suspected by the police to be a principal source of ammunition to armed robbers. Sule, (49), a father of 10 from two wives, had been fingered by a gang of armed bandits in police net as their main supplier of weapons, prompting his arrest by a crack team of anti-robbery operatives from the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
Caught with 160 rounds of live ammunition, which he had allegedly gone to supply his customers (robbers) along the Kaduna - Abuja road, Sule was said to have opened up on his link to police armouries, naming Constable Musa Waziri as his pointsman.
Waziri was promptly arrested as he fell into a trap set by detectives, while attempting to supply Mallam Sule with six packets of live ammunition. Knowing that the game was up, the 26-year-old cop, who hails from Dass Local Government Area of Bauchi State, reportedly opened the pandora's box to his interrogators.
He pointed at Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) James Faga, the officer-in-charge of armarment at the Kaduna police command, as alleged leader of the illegal arms league. He also named the second-in-command of the Kaduna police armoury, Inspector John Gaiza.
Waziri further said Inspectors Gregory Ngaji, David Dawa, Danjuma Gobong and Solomon Dankat are also members of his gun-running syndicate. Others are Sergeants Peter Odah and Sunday Asubahi.
All the nine police officers who serve under the Kaduna State Police Command have been arrested and detained at the Force Headquarters, preparatory to their trial in Orderly Room which is expected to commence soon.