By Abasi Ita, Calabar
In furtherance of its quest to curtail criminal activities in Cross River by checkmating the nefarious ploys of criminally minded individuals, the State Police Command has raided a gun factory in Akamkpa, about 45 kilometres from the Capital City, Calabar.
The successful sting operation predicated on intelligence report was carried out in the wee hours of Wednesday by the Police Special Unit, known as Anti Cultism and Kidnapping Squad, nicknamed Operation Dragon, led by the Unit Commander, SP Ogini Chukwuma.
Information available to Summit Post News indicated that the covert operation which lasted over four hours led to the discovery of gunsmith arms depot harbouring sophisticated weapons ranging from remote controlled IEDs, detonators , assorted explosive devices , various automatic weapons , dozens of locally made double barrels and pistols.
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed that the gun factory served as the major weapons supply base for kidnappers, armed gangs and gun men terrorizing the locality and its environs including Calabar.
According to the source, with the discovery and arrest of suspects already by the Police, the villagers can now heave a sigh of relief from miscreants who patronize the gun runners to acquire weapons deployed in terrorising the viccinity.
Confirming the development, Spokesperson of the Command, SP Irene Ugbo stated that nine persons including a notorious armed robbery suspect by name Orok Etim otherwise known as Gowon are already cooling their feet in Police custody while efforts have been intensify to nab other members in the syndicate.
SP Ugbo enumerated the items recovered from the factory to include high several explosive devices with 90 meters range capacity, 10 Detonators, 15 Indicators,10 pieces of remotes devices and 10 pieces of 120 amp batteries used in generating electricity for the plant.
Others are G3 automatic machine gun 2 pieces, 3 pump actions, MAC 4 automatic rifles 5 pieces , 5 locally fabricated pistols , LAR riffle , locally fabricated revolver and beretta Pistols, 650 rounds of 7.6×51 LAR ammunition 29 rounds of 7.62×39 AK-47 AMMUNITION X 70 pieces of cartridges amongst others
She disclosed that the suspects terrorists who would be charged to court as soon possible as investigations are concluded.
“Once we are done with our investigation, they would be charged to court , this is a pure act of terrorism, for them to be making explosives right inside a community with highly sophisticated remote donators , indicators and so on.
” It’s a huge breakthrough for the Command and we are not relenting in our quest to sanitize the state and make Cross River the safe haven it used to be, as a matter of fact , we are taking the war to these criminals,” she posited.