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Police Sack Arms Factory

P.M. News (Lagos)
NEWS
April 8, 2004
Posted to the web April 8, 2004

Efforts of the police to stem the tide of armed attacks in the country are
beginning to yield positive results, as detectives stormed a village in Abia
State and arrested 19 illegal arms manufacturers. Large cache of arms and
ammunition were also recovered.
P.M.News investigations revealed that the suspects were arrested at Abala
village in Aba Local Government Area of Abia State following a tip-off.
The suspects, P.M.News learnt, had since been transferred to the Force
Headquarters, Abuja for detailed interrogation and subsequent prosecution.
Some of the arms and ammunition recovered from the suspects are 96 empty AK-47,
LAR and G3 magazines, one AK 47 rifle (locally-assembled), two foreign-made
pistols, 13 locally-made pistols/revolvers, four double-barrel shot guns, two
double-barrel long guns, one single-barrel shot gun, three single-barrel long
guns, 15 pieces of partially-assembled pistols/revolvers and two unserviceable
pump action guns.
Other items recovered include eight unserviceable single-barrel guns, 39 rounds
of .88 revolver ammunition, 18 rounds of .9mm ammunition, 16 pieces of table
knives, 25 hand saws and assorted machine tools for fabrication and manufacture
of home made weapons.
Commenting on the arrest, Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun,
described the operations of the recently-inaugurated Task Force on the Recovery
of Illegally-Acquired Firearms as being on course and implored Nigerians to
continue to provide the police with information on criminals and their
hideouts.
He further disclosed that the police would not rest on their oars until arms
smugglers were brought to book and illegal arms recovered throughout the
country.
It would be recalled that the Nigeria Police recently called on all owners of
illegal arms and ammunition in the country to surrender them to the police. It
also appealed to the public to inform policemen in their areas of the hideouts
of illegal arms manufacturers and criminals.
Meanwhile, Mr. Balogun has set up six committees in the six geo-political zones
of the country to re-screen all policemen recruited from February 2000 to date.
Inaugurating the screening committees which are headed by Deputy Inspectors-
General of Police, the IGP charged them to ensure that all those recruited
within the period under review met the minimum police entry standards and were
of impeccable character.
The committees were also charged to weed out those found unfit to serve as
policemen but who gained entry into the Nigeria Police through foul means.
The IGP also appealed to Nigerians to avail the force with information on the
criminal records or unsuitability of any of the newly-recruited personnel,
adding that such information would be treated with utmost confidentiality.

   

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