The Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Enugu state command, has nabbed a notorious gun manufacturer who has been supplying firearms to hoodlums in the state.
The suspect identified as one Eze Cyprian, aged 69, is a cripple from Umuabi in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu state.
Our correspondent gathered that he was picked following intelligence gathered about his nefarious activities, which made Police operatives stormed his hideout in the early hours of Monday.
The state’s police spokesman, SP Ebere Amaraizu, in a statement signed on Monday, alleged that Eze “has allegedly manufactured firearms which he usually supplies to armed robbers/cultists.”
He added that the suspect has also “revealed how he manufactured arms and supplied same to suspected armed robbers and to a group of cultists in which one Chidera Nwaori was killed sometime in June 2009 at Agbani Road Enugu.”
He said the physically challenged suspect “is now helping the operatives in their investigations.”
Items recovered from the suspect include one locally made double-barrel pistol, four cut to size locally made guns including “one belonging to a notorious suspected cultist/murderer identified as one Ugochukwu Ogba, 28 years, a leader of Black Axe confraternity and who had brought his gun to the manufacturer for repairs,” Amaraizu stated.
Also recovered were six short barrel guns, various gun parts ready to be assembled, ten live cartridges, thirteen expended cartridges, electric welding machine, gas cylinders, drilling machines and clamps, amongst others.
Meanwhile, state’s commissioner of police, Suleiman Balarabe, has lauded the Police operatives of Operation Puff Adder and Anti-Kidnapping who effected the arrest and called for “full scale investigations and diligent prosecutions of suspects”.
Balarabe also maintained that based on the expiration of the ultimatum given to those with unlicensed and authorized firearms to surrender it to the nearest police station, a committee from the Operation Puff Adder has been set up “to commence enforcement, arrest, recovery and diligent prosecutions of suspects arrested.”
He revealed that operatives will be working on intelligence information to ensure that it is strictly enforced.
