Kogi State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Musa Katsina
By Shola Oyeyipo
There are no fewer than 1, 000 illegally acquired AK 47 riffles in private hands in Okene, the headquarters of Central Senatorial District - Kogi State, the police authority has revealed.
The Kogi State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Musa Katsina gave the indication Friday while parading freshly apprehended suspected collaborators with the perpetrators of the attack on worshippers at the Deeper Life Bible Church and killers of the two military officers.
Paraded were; a pastor, who assisted the arrested suspected leader of the gang that led the attacks, Sadiq (also known as Yekini and Sanni) from whom two riffles belonging to the slain soldiers were recovered, his wife and the landlady of his residence located near the attacked church.
The police authority said the young wife of the suspected mastermind of the attack whose name was simply given as Ajara who was arrested on Sunday, August 19, 2012 had lied to the police that she met her spouse in January 2012 and that they had been living in the apartment since October 2011 after seeing the landlady who was arrested separately.
Katsina noted that: "There is no Boko Haram in Okene" and that what was witnessed in the state in the past few weeks was " a pure case of armed robbery and political attack".
While lamenting the spate of crimes in Ebiraland, the police boss state that 99 per cent of perpetrators of the crimes in Okene are Ebiras: "Infact, they're calling from Kano State that most of the arrests made are people from Okene and that we should come and pack them".
He hinted that some of the people have mastered the act of bomb making, which they sell to armed robbers in other states.
He however assured the people that there is an intensified effort to unravel the motive behind the attack in Okene.
"Now the police are looking to identify the motive of the attack. And we can assure the people that it is a phase that will pass once we are able convict some of those people that think they are untouchable," Katsina assured.
The suspects, however, maintained their innocence as each one exonerated themselves from the killings that rocked the ancient town recently.