The Nigerian Army personnel of battalion 192, has arrested two suspected smugglers caught with a truck stocked with ammunition, in Ogun State.
This was disclosed in a statement made by the army spokesperson, Onyema Nwachukwu, on Monday, 17th July, he noted that the suspects were arrested on Saturday, 15th June.
According to Nwachuku, the smugglers were conveying the ammunition to Anambra before running into a stop-and-search cordon mounted by the army in Ogun.
He also mentioned that the ammunition was concealed in a supposed empty truck to avoid search in security check points.
The statement reads, “The troops, who acted on actionable intelligence conducted a meticulous and rigorous stop and search operation along Ajilete-Owode Road in Yewa North LGA of Ogun state and uncovered the illegal ammunition in a truck with Registration number ENU 697 XY.
“The truck was loaded with 720 packets of Red Star Cartridges of 12 Calibre, containing 25 cartridges per packet, totalling 18,000 cartridges and an additional 250 packets of live (black) cartridges containing 10 packets each, totalling 2500 cartridges of same calibre.
“The suspects, identified as Mr. Eric Seworvor, a Ghanaian national, and the driver, Mr. Lukman Sani, have been taken into custody and are helping with ongoing investigations.
“Information gathered during preliminary investigation revealed that the ammunition, which were surreptitiously concealed in a supposed empty truck were imported from Mali, via Idiroko International Border.
“The criminals had successfully beaten several other checkpoints en-route their final destination in Onitsha, Anambra State, where they intended to deliver the illegal ammunition.
“Timely intervention by the vigilant troops however thwarted the chaos that such volume of ammunition would have unleashed on innocent members of the public, if the criminals had succeeded.”
