—Major Arms Peddler Arrested, Weapons Cache Recovered in Warri
A swift police operation in Obiaruku resulted in the fatal wounding of a suspected kidnapper and the successful rescue of a female victim earlier this month, the Command confirmed.
The incident began on November 1, 2025, around 10:00 AM, when armed assailants attacked a male resident and his sister, travelling on a motorcycle in the Obinomba community, forcefully whisking the woman into a nearby bush.
Acting quickly on the distress call, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Obiaruku Division led a combined team of police operatives and the local community Vigilante group.
Their persistence paid off when they tracked the kidnappers to a thick forest in the Ibinomba community around 5:20 AM on November 2, 2025.
The confrontation turned violent when the hoodlums, upon sighting the security team, opened fire. The operatives responded decisively, leading to a fierce gun battle in which one of the suspects was fatally wounded.
The victim was rescued unhurt and has since been reunited with her family. Recovered from the scene were one AK-47 rifle, a magazine, and twelve rounds of live ammunition.
The injured suspect was taken to the hospital, but was later confirmed dead by the attending doctor. Efforts are currently underway to apprehend the remaining members of the gang.
In a separate, significant breakthrough, the Command’s operatives, leveraging intelligence from the Force Technical Intelligence Unit (TIU), Abuja, have apprehended a notorious arms peddler and recovered a substantial cache of ammunition.
The operation commenced with the arrest of a female suspect, Jamila Abubakar, at a filling station on the Warri, Patani Road in Effurun.
She was found in possession of ₦550,000 in cash, suspected to be proceeds from illicit transactions.
Following her arrest and subsequent investigation, operatives of the CP-Special Assignment Team (CP-SAT) stormed the Niger-Cat area of Warri on October 22, 2025, where they successfully arrested Ahmed Ibrahim (male, 31), a key figure identified as an arms supplier.
Ibrahim, who was on the Command’s watch list for high-profile kidnapping and armed robbery, was arrested with a bag containing: 115 rounds of 7.63mm AK-47 live ammunition, 220 rounds of SMG rifle ammunition and 32 live cartridges.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Ibrahim is a key supplier of weapons to bandit groups in the North and was also linked to the kidnapping and murder of Ogheneovo Onemu in May 2024, who was killed despite a ₦4,000,000 ransom payment.
Further searches at another hideout near Beta Glass Company along Ughelli-Warri led to the recovery of one buried AK-47 rifle and eighteen rounds of 7.62mm ammunition.
