Rape investigation leads to discovery of illegal gun factory

The Benue State Police Command has

The state's Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, paraded three suspects at the Oju Divisional Police headquarters in Oju on Tuesday, May 29, 2019, disclosing that officers were investigating a rape incident when the discovery was made.

According to him, 19-year-old Kingsley Abi and his 17-year-old friend, Thomas Ode, had been arrested in connection to the abduction and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl before further investigation led them to the factory.

While chasing down evidence of the crime, police officers paid a visit to Kingsley's house where prohibited firearms and ammunitions were discovered.

Owoseni revealed that Kingsley's blacksmith father, Abi Odah, was identified as the owner of the workshop where he has been producing dangerous weapons and selling them.

Arms and ammunitions recovered by the police include one G3 rifle, four G3 empty shells of ammunition, three locally formed Beretta magazines, two expended cartridges, three skeletons of locally made pistols, three wooden butts of guns, among other things.

While the main culprit, Abi Odah, claimed that he only manufactured local dane guns for hunters, Owoseni noted that some of the locally-fabricated equipment use AK-47 prohibited ammunition.