Two suspected gun runners now in police net

isaac

January 12, 2015 3:12 PM

Two suspected gun runners have been arrested by the Lagos State police command.

Two men whose stock in trade was to procure guns and sell them to armed robbers and other criminals, are now regretting their actions in the cells of the Lagos State Police Command, having been arrested for smuggling guns into the state to sell.

According to Punch Metro, the suspects, Tunde Jimoh and Matthew Olu, were nabbed from a hideout in Ilorin, Kwara State.

The police said they wanted to purchase four AK-47 guns with 128 rounds of ammunition from Kwara State, which would be escorted by a fake soldier to Lagos. But their deadly venture was cut short when the were arrested by operatives of the state Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS.

In a statement while parading the suspects, the police said the gang members lived and operated from Kogi State.

28-year-old Tunde Jimoh who hails from Okenne, Kogi State, however denied knowledge of the guns.

"I am a commercial driver. I work in Osogbo, Osun State. It was one of my friends who pleaded with me to help him drive a car from Osogbo to Lokoja. He said he had a customer in Lokoja that wanted to buy a car. He told me there was a gun in the boot. I told him I could not go alone, and he said he would come with me. In the process, the police arrested both of us.

I am married with two children. I had helped my friend to bring a vehicle from Ilorin to Kaduna many times in the past. I do not know anything about gun-running."

43-year-old Olu, from Yegba, also in Kogi State, who usually disguised as a soldier during such trips, confessed that he went into the gunrunning business because of poverty.

He said:

"I needed some money. A cousin called Gboye said someone was going to pay me some money, and I should come over to Lokoja.

While in Lokoja on December 20, the person told me to come to Ilorin and bring a car for him. He said he would give me N50,000. I knew the vehicle had a gun. It was while I was to collect it that we were arrested."

isaac