The suspect, identified as Momoh Ogirimah, said that the cache of arms and ammunition belonged to his late father, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in charge of operations, revealing that the deceased police officer led the team that was ambushed by Ombatse cults in Nassarawa state about two years ago and died in the operation.

Ogirimah confessed that he used one of the guns to harass someone who had a misunderstanding with his younger brother over money issues, saying that he regretted that he did not inform the police about the cache of arms in his house.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, the Commissioner of Police, Salihu Garba, said that the arrest of Ogirimah came less than 24 hours after a Mercedes Benz truck laden with 108,260 rounds of live cartridges was intercepted with two suspects at Kosubosu in Baruten local government area of the state.

Apart from the two arrests, Garba said that the command also recovered two AK47 rifles missing from Ogun and Ondo state commands, three locally-made pistols from an escaping suspect, as well as another pistol from a mosque in Lafiagi area of the state.

The police commissioner expressed deep concern over the growing rate of political violence in the state, saying he had received a “rise to the occasion” signal from the police high command on the development and would immediately commence a clampdown on political miscreants in the state.

The arms and ammunition recovered from Ogirimah include one Beretta pistol with number A07078Z said to belong to the Ondo State police command, one revolver pistol with number RUHMRG799ABL said not to be on the record of any command in the country and one locally-made pistol.

Others include 133 pieces of 7.62mm ammunition, 28 pieces of .9mm ammunition, 22 pieces of 7.6mm ammunition, three bullet proof vests, one respirator, one complete set of body protector, three blasts, one hand grenade, 11 smoke cartridges, 86 live cartridges, 42 pieces of 5.56mm ammunition, two pieces of .36mm ammunition, 27 live rubber cartridges, nine .9mm rubber bullets and one anti-riot helmet.

Speaking on the arms-laden truck, Garba disclosed that two suspects, Abdulazeez Isiaka, a Nigerian and Amusail Amodu, a Ghanaian were arrested with the truck, adding that the ammunition was hidden in a compartment of the truck.

“When the suspects were interrogated, they confessed that they had been in the shady business for some time and that the consignment was loaded from Burkina-Faso for offloading in Ibadan, Oyo State”, the police boss said.

He added that another suspect, identified as Jacob Idowu, was arrested at a campaign ground where he and his gang were firing sporadically into the air after smoking Indian hemp.