By Tony Edike

ENUGU— THREE persons, including a middle-aged man who claimed to be a major supplier of arms and ammunition to Abia State government, have been arrested by soldiers from the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu, for illegal arms deals.

General Officer Commanding (GOC)  the military formation, Major-General Mohammed Isah, paraded the suspects, including one Eugene Nwokedi, alias High Chief, who claimed to be a building material dealer at Ariaria Market, Aba, yesterday.   The arms syndicate was smashed at the commercial town of Aba following a tip off.

The GOC identified the other two suspects as Hope Akpan and Madu Ndubuisi. While Nwokedi hails from Anambra State, Akpan is of Cross River State origin. Ndubuisi is from Imo State.

Major-General Isah disclosed that large quantities of arms and ammunitions, including dangerous weapons as AK47 and pump action guns as well as live cartridges, were recovered from the syndicate. He described the discovery as very disturbing, especially coming at a time that the South East zone was facing serious security threats as kidnapping and armed robbery.

The arrest of members of the syndicate followed a revelation by one Hope Akpan, after he was intercepted for possessing a total 1,283 live bullets along the Aba-Port Harcourt express way on his way back to his base in Cross River.  Akpan had confessed to the security operatives that he supplied the illegal arms and ammunitions to an  Aba-based  High Chief (Nwokedi).

Nwokedi told reporters that he had a link with a  top government official in Abia State, saying as a former member of the state vigilante, he was asked by the government functionary to engage in firearms business which he had successfully done for some years.

According to him, he had supplied ammunitions worth over N3.5milion to Abia State government through his link-man whom he identified as Ukpai Ukpai,  a chief security personnel in the state government.

Asked how he got the arms, Nwokedi revealed that a police corporal in Ebonyi State, whose name he did not disclosed, was his major supplier of the weapons, adding that he had known him for the past four years.

On his part, Mr. Akpan, who admitted engaging in the illicit trade, hinted that he  always  purchased the illegal arms and ammunitions from one  Henshaw  Okpor,  a   serving police  Corporal attached to  Ebonyi State police command, adding that he   buys  one pump action rifle  for N130,000 from  the said police man and sells  to High  Chief Nwokedi and one Romanus now at large at N150,000.