DSS arrests soldier allegedly supplying weapons to bandits

Operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) have arrested a soldier attached to the Muhammadu Buhari Cantonment in Tungan-Maje in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), for allegedly hiring out and selling guns to kidnappers.

He was arrested last week following an operation carried out around Dankogi Park in Zuba in collaboration with members of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria in the area.

A vigilante group member in the area told Daily Trust that DSS operatives from Gwagwalada office sought the assistance of the local security group in Zuba to arrest the suspect after he was accused of supplying arms by a suspected kidnapper in the security agency’s custody.

He said; 

 “It was learnt that the suspect, in the first deal, had allegedly hired out a gun for a kidnap operation for N300,000.

“Then in the second instance, they contacted him for another deal and he demanded N200,000 which the kidnappers allegedly paid, but he failed to produce the gun.

 “So they contacted him for another deal to supply them with AK-47s to buy at the cost of N3 million.

“We went to the agreed site on the delivery day here in Zuba, and took position. He arrived at the scene in his car to present the arm, and that was the time we came out and caught him with the gun well wrapped.’’

An AK-47 rifle, as well as a fully loaded magazine with 30 rounds of ammunition, were found inside one of the safe compartments of his car.

The source added; 

“We drove him to our office where a document was signed with the DSS and handed him over to them.’’

It was further learnt that army officials from the headquarters in Abuja met the vigilantes in their Zuba office the next day where they took their statement on how the operation was carried out.