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Amosun reportedly surrendered 1000 AK47 rifles, four million bullets he secretly acquired

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Ogun Assembly



The ex-governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has secretly surrendered at least four million rounds of ammunition, 1,000 units of AK47 assault rifles, 1,000 units of bulletproof vests and an armoured personnel carrier (APC) stacked in the government house.

PREMIUM TIMES reports that the embattled ex-governor, surrendered the weapons because he was desperate to clear the Government House of any incriminating material before governor Dapo Abiodun assumed office.

Amosun reportedly contacted the state’s Commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, confessing that he had thousands of arms and millions of ammunition.

Shortly after he was contacted, Commissioner Makama raced to Government House with some of his subordinates. On arrival, truckloads of arms and ammunition were brought out of a nondescript armoury inside the Ogun State Government House.

Mr Amosun said he procured the arms and ammunition to check the widespread insecurity in his state. He said he decided to keep them at the Government House Armoury to ensure they were not allocated indiscriminately by security agencies.

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The arms and ammunition were driven to the police command headquarters in the Elewe-Eran area of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

Four weeks after the event, top Nigerian security operatives remained alarmed that a civilian governor would create an armoury and store thousands of arms there. The agents are also wondering why Mr Amosun has not been arrested and prosecuted for violating sections of the Nigeria Firearms Act.

The law forbids individuals and civilian institutions from illegally operating armouries or possessing prohibited firearms, including artillery, apparatus for the discharge of any explosive or gas diffusing projectile, rocket weapons, bombs and grenades, machine-guns and machine-pistols, military rifles (namely those of calibres 7.62 mm, 9 mm, .300 inches and .303 inches), revolvers and pistols whether rifled or unrifled (including flint-lock pistols and cap pistols).

It remains unclear how Mr Amosun obtained the weapons. Authorities are wondering how he imported the weapons, and how he transported them to Government House and stored them for prolonged periods without being detected.

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Some security experts say they are suspicious he might have acquired far more weapons than he gave up to the police and that some of them might be in wrong hands already.

The former governor, now senator, declined to give his own side of the story. He did not answer or return telephone calls made to him over five days. He also did not respond to text and WhatsApp messages sent to him.

When contacted, his media adviser, Rotimi Durojaiye, requested this reporter to email him the questions meant for Mr Amosun. Five days later, Mr Durojaiye is yet to respond with answers.

Authorities at Nigeria’s key security agencies told PREMIUM TIMES Mr Amosun may have procured the arms and ammunition without securing End-User certificates from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA). End-User certificates are absolutely required to import controlled products into Nigeria.

In Mr Amosun’s Ogun State, a number of residents died in widespread shootings between February 23 and March 9, the days of the presidential and governorship elections, respectively.

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Most of the election-related deaths, including of police officers, were reported in Ilaro, Abeokuta and Ijebu-Ode, three of the state’s largest cities. Security sources blamed the killings on arms proliferation across the state, a menace they said had been largely difficult to contain.

PREMIUM TIMES’ efforts to get Mr Amosun’s comments were rebuffed by the politician. Several text messages, WhatsApp messages and telephone calls to his two active telephone lines went unacknowledged or returned over five days.

Mr Amosun’s spokesperson, Rotimi Durojaiye, also took questions from PREMIUM TIMES on behalf of his principal, but said he could not respond to them because he was unable to reach his principal after several attempts. Mr Durojaiye served as Mr Amosun’s special adviser on media and publicity when he was governor.

The police also declined to give comments. Force spokesperson, Frank Mba, directed all enquiries about police involvement in the matter to Commissioner Makama.

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