Raphael Ede, Enugu
The Enugu State Police Command says it has recovered 148 various types of arms in Enugu, in-line with the directives of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to state commands to mop-up illegal arms in their various states.
Also recovered were 155 of ammunition and 205 cartridges.
Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Mohammed Danmallam, gave these figures during a press briefing, on Thursday.
Danmallam said the arms and ammunition were recovered through stop-and-search operations by the joint task-force to mop-up illegal fire arms and ammunition to ensure that fire arms do not continue in wrong hands.
On how many people have surrendered their arms and ammunition since the exercise began, Danmallam said only one person has voluntarily submitted his gun to his office.
According to the Police Commissioner, arms recovered included, “10 AK 47 rifle; 30 Pump Action gun; 33 locally made pistol single barrel gun; 36 locally made pistol double barrel gun; eight (8) locally made cut to size short gun; three (3) locally made revolver short gun; 11 Barreta pistol and 17 single barrel long gun.”
He, however, urged all persons with fire arms and ammunition to come and surrender it now, warning that anyone caught with illegal fire arms and ammunition without due authorisation would henceforth be prosecuted according to the relevant laws of the country.
“If you have fire arms and ammunition with expired licence or not duly registered; you must re-verify and re-validate at the command now,’’ he said.
The Commissioner had on February 26, set-up police joint task-force headed by the Assistant Commissioner of Police in-charge of Operations, Mr. Frank Idu, to mop-up illegal arms and ammunition in the state.
The mandate of the task-force was to ensure the mop-up of all illegal fire arms and ammunition in the state as well as stop all militia groups.