Anambra: Troops intercept federal lawmaker carrying 54 AK-47s, 119 pump action machines, caches of ammunition

Credible reports from Nteje in Oyi Local government Area of Anambra State reveals that a combined team of the police and the military on Sunday intercepted a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the convoy of the member representing Anambra East and West in the House of Representatives, Hon. Chinedu Obidigwe.

It was gathered that the raid was made possible following a tip off.

The combined security team was then quickly scrambled.

A source familiar with the operation disclosed that the team then trailed the convoy of the House of Rep. member till the outskirts of Nteje before stopping the convoy.

It was gathered that the security details attached to Hon. Chinedu Obidigwe at first geared up for a gun battle but when it became obvious that the operatives were indeed a security task force, they stood down allowing the special task force to inspect the entire vehicles in the long convoy.A total of 52 Ak-47 rifles, 119 pump actions and thousands of ammunition were recovered from several vehicles in the convoy. However, the security details attached to Hon. Chinedu Obidigwe insisted he would not be arrested prompting a standoff.

Hon. Obidigwe who did not alight from his bullet-proof vehicle allegedly contacted Gov. Willie Obiano and eventually, to avoid unnecessary casualty, the convoy was escorted back to Zone 13 Police Headquarters, Ukpo.

It is unclear if Hon. Chinedu Obidigwe is still in custody at the Zone 13 police headquarters. Gov. Willie Obiano was however making frantic calls to ensure the case was not escalated. A security source alleged that Gov. Willie Obiano was willing to do anything to prevent the incident from coming to the public domain.

This incident is coming barely two weeks to the governorship election in Anambra State and at a time of heightened insecurity in the state.

There are fears before now that some political actors are actually behind the insecurity bedevilling the state. In fact, Gov. Willie Obiano during a visit to President Buhari few weeks ago over plans to declare state of emergency in Anambra said that politicians are the cause of the killings in the state with many of those causing mayhem coming from outside the state.