Nigerian soldiers of the 192 Battalion have arrested two suspected smugglers with a truck laden with ammunition in Ogun state.
According to Onyema Nwachukwu, Nigerian Army spokesperson, in a statement on Monday, July 17, the suspects were arrested on Saturday, July 15.
Nwachukwu disclosed that the vehicle was conveying the smuggled ammunition to Anambra before running into a checkpoint mounted by the troops in Ogun.
He said further in a tweet:
“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, 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 ten 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, where 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.”
