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From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Assorted arms and ammunition have been recovered by security operatives during a raid on a suspected criminal hideout in Ekpan area of Delta State.
The raid was executed by a combined team of the police and the military who thoroughly searched the uncompleted building located on Agadaga Avenue, off Jakpa Road, Ekpan, near Warri.
Arms recovered include one AK-47 rifle with five magazines loaded with 161 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition; one assault rifle with two magazines loaded with 59 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition; two English pump-action guns; 110 rounds of live cartridges; one double barrel gun; one single barrel gun; one toy gun; cutlasses; and a bunch of charms.
Although no suspect was arrested, Public Relations Officer of the state police command, DSP Bright Edafe who confirmed the recovery in a statement on Tuesday, said frantic effort was being made to apprehend the fleeing criminal syndicate.
According to Edafe, the raid was sequel to series of complaints from residents of Ekpan and environs on the activities of kidnappers and armed robbers in Ekpan, Warri, and environs.
As a result, he said the Commissioner of Police, Wale Abass, “ordered the deployment of CSP Aliyu Shaba to Ekpan Police Station with a clear mandate to sanitize the area and ensure that Ekpan and environs are safe for all resident.”
Edafe added the new DPO, acting on credible intelligence gathered on the hideout of suspected kidnappers, armed robbers, and the location of their weapons, on July 3 at about 4pm led the security team to storm the hideout on a sting operation to recover the arms.
He seized the opportunity to on behalf of the commissioner of Police, to solicit “maximum cooperation from members of the public, particularly Deltans, especially in the area of making available any useful information that will aid in crime fighting to the police.”
