Police Seize GPMG, AK47 from Niger Delta Militants

Assault rifles including a General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) and AK47 were recovered from a gang smashed by the police yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

According to the police, three members of the gang were killed in a shootout, when they were intercepted by officers attached to the Intelligence Response Team (IRT). One was captured alive. He was identified as James Peter, a 30-year-old man from Southern Ijaw.

The police told Newsmakers that they had received credible intelligence before the encounter that a gang of notorious kidnappers and armed robbers operating along the waterways in Rivers and Bayelsa were intercepted by the IRT along Azikwe Road, Port-Harcourt while they were going on a mission.

“They opened fire immediately they sighted the police team and three of them were fatally wounded in the gun battle that ensued,” a source close to the team told Newsmakers.

He said: “Weapons recovered from the gang included one GPMG with bridge number 132/095 and chain of bullets; one AK47 rifle with bridge number 0231, and two fully loaded AK47 magazines. The suspects with fatal Injuries were deposited at the mortuary for autopsy, while the one arrested alive had mentioned all gang members at large and where they kept their remaining weapons.”

Police authorities said that serious efforts were on to capture the remaining gang members and recover more arms.