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An Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), whose name was simply given as ASP Tanko, in charge of the Mobile Police Unit (Mopol 12) armoury in Niger State, has been arrested by the state police command over his alleged involvement in illegal arms dealing with bandits and other hoodlums in the state.
Also arrested with him are the Chief Instructor with Mopol 12, whose name was equally given as Inspector Jibrin, and another personnel whose name could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report.
A source close to Mopol 12 in Minna told our correspondent that the fourth accomplice took to his heels after he learnt of the arrest of his colleagues and that he was being trailed by the police with a view to apprehending him.
The three officers are currently being detained by the police at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), police headquarters in Minna, the state capital.
It was gathered that also detained with them are two civilians whose identities could not be ascertained, but one of them was said to be the conveyor of the arms and ammunition, while the second was to receive the items for onward supply to yet-to-be-identified person or persons.
It was gathered that luck ran out of the suspects when a police patrol team along the Minna-Kontagora Road intercepted a commercial vehicle conveying the weapons, and one of the civilian suspects was immediately apprehended and whisked away to the Area Command, Kontagora.
The suspect then confessed and told the police during interrogation that he was given the arms and ammunition by the officers attached to the Mopol 12 armoury, situated on the premises of B Division of the police command, Paiko Road, Minna, the state capital, for onward delivery to the second civilian in Kontagora.
He later helped the police to track down the second civilian suspect after he tricked him into coming to meet him at an agreed location to take delivery of the arms and ammunition.
On arrival at the location, he was promptly arrested by detectives from the Area Command, Kontagora, and both of them were taken to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.
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All attempts to reach the police public relations officer of the command, SP Wasiu Abiodun, to confirm the development were unsuccessful, as his mobile phone was not going through as at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, this latest incident is coming barely one year after a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) attached to the same Mopol 12, Isah Abdullahi, aka Kunkuri, shot himself dead over his alleged involvement in the supply of arms and ammunition to bandits and other hoodlums in the state.
The late Isah Abdullahi was the head of the armoury of Mopol 12.
The late DSP was arrested after a team of detectives from the National Security Adviser’s (NSA) office, Abuja, came for the annual routine auditing of arms and ammunition, when it was discovered that some arms and ammunition were either missing or could not be accounted for.
They were further alarmed by the discovery from the preliminary findings that about 13 AK-47 rifles and over 2,000 rounds of ammunition were missing.
It was gathered that the Mopol 12 armoury played host to a number of different categories of weapons, but only the section containing the AK-47s was audited before the tragic incident.
Further investigation led to the arrest of another police inspector, John Moses, attached to the Niger State Government House in Minna, who confessed during interrogation that the late DSP supplied him with arms and ammunition for onward delivery to bandits and other hoodlums in Erena community in Shiroro Local Government Area of the state.
However, one week after the late DSP Isah Abdullahi shot himself in the head and died instantly, police Inspector John Moses also killed himself in the detention cell where he was being kept in Abuja.
The late police inspector was said to have hit his head against the wall of the detention room several times before he slumped and died.
