Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted 64,000 pump-action gun cartridges and a new pump-action gun at a store located at Success Line, Marine Modern Market, Onitsha, Anambra State.
The discovery, which led to the arrest of an arms dealer, 34-year-old Donatus Onyemachi Igwebudu, followed credible intelligence on drugs and arms deals in the location.
Backed by the Nigerian Army, NDLEA operatives stormed the store on Wednesday and moved the arm and ammunition to the agency’s office in Awka, the state capital.
In a related development, NDLEA operatives on patrol along Okene-Lokoja Expressway in Kogi State intercepted 34 children between the ages of eight and 14 being trafficked from Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The minors were packed inside two commercial buses; Toyota Sienna and a 12-seater Mazda with registration numbers Lagos LND124FV and Oyo BDJ-683YK respectively.
They were recovered in the early hours of Thursday from the human trafficking syndicate.
The bus drivers confirmed that the kids were handed over to them by a woman at Ijebu Ode to be conveyed to Abuja, adding that on arrival in FCT, the woman was to call another bus driver, who will convey the children to Riyom in Plateau State.
It was further revealed that the children were initially trafficked from Plateau State to Ijebu Ode where they were distributed to different households as home helps.
Some of the children were discovered to have served for two years and their rewards were sent to the woman’s agent in Jos.
While commending the officers and men of Anambra and Kogi commands of the agency for their vigilance and preparedness to work in synergy with other security agencies in their areas of responsibility, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), charged them to sustain the tempo.
He also directed that the arm and ammunition along with the suspect arrested in Anambra should be transferred to the police while the 34 trafficked children are to be transferred to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons for further investigation.
