The Police in Benue State on Monday paraded two foreign nationals and three other Nigerians for allegedly being in possession of 378 live ammunition when they were intercepted along Adikpo-Ugbama road in Kwande Local Government Area of the state.

State Commissioner of Police, Ene Okon, who paraded the five suspects at the Command’s headquarters in Makurdi, said that men of the special outfit, Operation Zenda were on stop-and-search along the Adikpo-Ugbama road when the suspects were nabbed in a black Toyota Camry car with registration number FST 51 AR, Lagos.

Okon said that upon searching the vehicle, 378 live ammunitions of various caliber, a telescope, two knives and assorted charms were recovered.

He gave the names of the suspects as, Abah Dedon Kena, Alfous Amabo, Obono Ubi, Ibor Bassey and Obebem Sunday.

The commissioner added that the matter was being investigated.

Meanwhile one of the two Cameroonian suspects, Dedon Kena, told Daily Trust in an interview that they were not criminals but freedom fighters in their war-torn country who were sent by their community to buy ammunition and that while going back, they had to pass through Nigeria.

Kena explained that the shortest cut back to their Anglophone community was through a place called Mafe in the region of the Francophones which is presently at war with their own English speaking area, so in other not to fall into the hands of their enemies, they had to trespass through Benue rural communities to return to their people with the arms where they were arrested by the police.

The suspect added that the other three Nigerians were their local friends who they contacted to help them navigate through the borders of Benue and passing along Takum in Taraba State.

•Sourced from a Daily Trust report

Update news