Police operatives in Delta State have arrested a suspected arm robber, Solomon Ebe, with 340 rounds of AK-47 live ammunition hidden inside a bag of garri (cassava flakes).
In a statement on Sunday, the Delta Police Command spokesman, Bright Edafe, said the suspect was nabbed in the early hours of Friday by officers attached to the Bomadi Divisional patrol team who were on a stop-and-search duty along the Bomadi/Tuomo Road.
According to him, the police operatives had intercepted the 37-year-old suspect, who hails from Tuomo community of Burutu Local Government Area of the oil-rich state, on his motorcycle.
“The operatives, who were discrete in their responsibilities on reasonable suspicion, decided to search the suspect and the bag,” the police spokesman added.
“Upon search, three hundred and forty (340) rounds of AK-47 live ammunition, hidden inside the garri, were recovered. The suspect was arrested and investigation is ongoing.”
Similarly, the statement noted that a mob had also reportedly set a suspected tricycle thief on fire in Warri.
He narrated that the incident took place on Thursday after the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the ‘A’ Division Warri was informed that the tricycle, with registration number FHR 600 QF, had been snatched by four armed gang at Hausa quarters and were moving towards Delta Line along the Warri/Sapele Road.
He explained that while the Rapid Response team of the division was deployed to chase after the suspected thieves, one of them named Efe David, jumped down from the tricycle and was immediately arrested. The rest escaped with the tricycle.
“Information was quickly disseminated to other divisions and vigilantes which fortunately led to the arrest of one of them by the vigilantes with the snatched tricycle while two of the robbers escaped.
“The vigilantes were overpowered by an irate mob who delivered instant jungle justice on the suspect. The tricycle, a cut to size double barrel gun with two live cartridges and some suspected stolen pieces of gold plated jewelries were recovered,” the statement added.
In a related development, during a raid in the Ozoro area of the state on the 29th of September, the police Public Relations Officer said: “one English double barrel gun and twenty-six (26) live cartridges were recovered in possession of one Ejiro Efemijoghor ‘f ‘, who claimed that the gun belongs to her husband.”
