A combined team of police officers attached to Ekpan Division and military personnel of 3 Battalion, Nigerian Army, Ekpan, on a sting operation, has recovered a large cache of assorted arms from criminals terrorising the area.
Confirming the development in a statement, yesterday, spokesperson for Delta State Police Command, Bright Edafe, said the recovery followed complaints from residents of Ekpan and environs over the activities of kidnappers and armed robbers in the area.
As a result of the complaint, he said the state Commissioner of Police, Wale Abass, deployed Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Aliyu Shaba from Ovwain-Aladja Division to Ekpan Divisional Police Station, with a clear mandate to sanitise the area and ensure that Ekpan and environs were safe for all resident.
Consequently, Shaba, acting on credible intelligence gathered on the hideout of suspected criminals and the location of their weapons, on Monday, July 3, 2023, at about 4:00p.m., led the team on a raid of the criminals’ hideout in an uncompleted building on Agadaga Avenue, off Jakpa Road, Ekpan, where a thorough search led to the recovery of the arms and ammunition from the fleeing criminals.
Edafe listed the arms and ammunition to include: one AK-47 rifle, with five magazines loaded with 161 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition; one assault rifle with two magazines loaded with 59 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition; two English pump-action guns with 110 rounds of live cartridges; one double barrel gun; one single barrel gun; one toy gun; cutlasses and a bunch of charms wrapped in a cap.
The police spokesperson assured that frantic efforts to arrest the criminal syndicate were ongoing, adding that the Commissioner of Police has urged residents of the state to always avail the Command of any useful information that could aid crime fighting.
