Posted by By Osaro Okhomina & Simon Ebegbulem on
BENIN CITY - A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) (names withheld) and wife of a senior military officer were yesterday arrested by men of the Edo State Police Command over alleged illegal possession of an AK47 rifle and 62 rounds of ammunition and suspected sales of firearms to armed robbers in the state.
BENIN CITY - A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) (names withheld) and wife of a senior military officer were yesterday arrested by men of the Edo State Police Command over alleged illegal possession of an AK47 rifle and 62 rounds of ammunition and suspected sales of firearms to armed robbers in the state.
Besides, two armed men, dressed in military and Mobile Police uniforms, were shot dead and three others dressed in Mobile Police uniforms arrested by the Police patrol team and goods worth about N3 million recovered from the suspects.
Briefing newsmen yesterday in Benin City, the state Commissioner for Police, Mr. Mukhtar Abbas, described the PDP chieftain as a ‘hoodlum' and that he was intercepted by the police in the Government Reservation Area of the Edo State capital with an AK47 rifle found in the car he was driving.
According to him, "when a search was conducted at his home, the police further found a pistol with 40 rounds of ammunition and two pump action guns. The suspect would soon be charged to court and I must let you know that some persons have been coming trying to bail him, but I would not consent to that at all. I have also arrested a man who the suspect said helped him procure the guns."
The suspect, who was later paraded before newsmen contended that he had a licence for one of the pump action guns for the protection of his family members, but he said he bought the other guns in the black market.
But the man, suspected to have sold the guns to the party chieftain denied and claimed he only assisted in renewing the licences of the guns in Lagos State where licence renewal for guns was still valid.
On the arrest of the wife of the retired senior military officer, the Police Commissioner confirmed that the woman was arrested at the Ekenwa military barracks with 75 rounds of live ammunition and that the investigation conducted revealed that she may be involved in the sales of firearms to armed robbers in the state.