Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Umar Shehu, yesterday paraded Bulus Kinze and James Kinze, both from Kogun village of Jema’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State for allegedly using their residence for illegal manufacturing of arms and ammunitions and equally serving as main supplier of arms to armed bandits within the area.
According to the police commissioner, when the suspects were arrested and their residence, two locally made AK-47 rifles, one locally made SMG rifle and its magazine, two locally made pistols, two police coloured AK-47 magazines, one locally made AK-47 magazine, twenty live 0.36 special revolver ammunition, three live 7.62mm long ammunitions, eleven live 7.62mm short, AK-47 ammunition and three live cartridges.
Others are one live 5.5mm, T.6 ammunition, 14 empty shells of 7.62mm short, AK-47 ammunition, seventeen empty shells of 0.36 special revolver pistols ammunition, one expanded cartridges, some parts of locally made AK-47 rifle and parts of other rifles, one drilling machine use in production of rifles, one hand driller, some instrument for fabrication of rifles and some assorted charms.
Meanwhile, when one of the suspected manufacturers of the illegal arms, James Kinze was interviewed at the police command headquarters where he was paraded alongside other armed robbery suspects, he owned up to manufacturing of locally made arms but said it was meant to protect themselves against bandits that have continued to terrorise their areas unabated.
“Armed bandits have continued to terrorise our area and killing our people, so since we could not get adequate protection from the security agencies, we decided to produce locally made arms to protect ourselves and our people from the recurring attacks by such arm bandits,” he said.
Also paraded were 20 suspected persons who were arrested for various offences ranging from, armed robbery, criminal conspiracy, and various acts of terrorism.
Meanwhile, CP Umar has reassured members of the public of the readiness of the command to rid the state of all criminal elements in the society.
He urged residents of Kaduna State to continue assisting the command with useful information to track down the criminals from every nook and crannies of the state.
The Commissioner informed that as soon as investigation into the various offences is concluded, the suspects would be charged to court for prosecution.
