By Kolawole Ojebisi
The claim by the Nigeria Army and other security agencies that foreigners are infiltrating the country’s porous borders to supply arms to terrorists, bandits and other insurgent groups appeared to be corroborated on Tuesday.
This is as the Zamfara police command arrested and eventually detained a 58-year-old Algerian national for alleged transborder arms trafficking.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Mohammed Dalijan, made this known in Gusau on Tuesday.
Speaking on the feats recorded by his men, the commissioner said 16 AK-47 riffles were recovered during various raids within the last three weeks.
He said the command also recovered one double barrel gun and one locally made Pistol from a suspected arms manufacturer based in Jos, Plateau.
”The command, acting on intelligence traced and arrested an arms manufacturer in Jos, tracked and arested a regional arms trafficker from Algeria at the Illela border point.
”The suspected Algerian, told the police he has been committing this crime for eight years.
”The suspect supplies arms and ammunition to bandits in all parts of north west states. At the point of the arrest, four AK47 were recovered from him,” he said.
Dalijan said the police also detained some suspects including bandits motorcycle suppliers.
“The police recovered live ammunition and N2. 5 million cash, among others from the suspects,” he said.
The police, he said, also detained some illegal gold miners and recovered several mining excavators.
The commissioner warned that the Federal and State government ban on illegal mining was still in force.
Recall that the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, in October, said the Federal Government has picked interest in the interrogation of the Gulf of Guinea as a major route for arms trafficking into Nigeria.
He noted that several reports had revealed that small and light weapons were done through the maritime.
