Police uncover illegal gun factory in Benue

The Benue State Police Command on Tuesday uncovered an illegal gun manufacturing factory in the Oju Local Government Area of the state. The Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, who led his men to the factory located at Amyuwogbu-Ibilla in Oju, said the legal factory owner, Abi Odah, was arrested alongside his son, Kingsley Abi and one Thomas Ode, aka Tommy. Owoseni, who paraded the three suspects at the Oju Police Division, stated that the police were investigating a case of abduction and rape when they stumbled on the illegal factory. He said 19-year-old Kingsley and his friend, Tommy, 17, were earlier arrested following an allegation of abduction and rape of a 15-year-old girl. The CP added that when policemen got to Kingsley father’s home, they found prohibited items in the father’s workshop located behind the house. The commissioner added that further probe into the activities of Odah, who was a blacksmith, revealed he was fabricating weapons while disguising them as Dane guns for hunters. “Some of the locally-fabricated guns use AK-47 ammunitions,” Owoseni said. Odah, who said he fabricated Dane guns for hunters, however, said not all the tools belonged to him.