Police Say Suspect Cited Insecurity As Reason For Firearms Possession

A police officer on Friday told the Federal High Court, Gombe that Malam Isa Aliyu, charged with illegal possession of firearms, cited insecurity as the reason for his action.

Hashidin Jumba, a sergeant, said while testifying as a prosecuting witness in the case that when they received information that the accused was in possession of arms illegally, they went and arrested him.

He said the accused took the police team to his shop at the Gombe New Market and showed them a hole which he dug and hid the arms inside.

According to him, before the team took the accused into custody, they invited his son, Malam Nura Ali, his friend, Malam Mohammed Kani, and his neighbor in the market, Malam Ali Abdulkadir, to see the exhibits.
He further said the accused told them that he bought the arms from some policemen and that he had never used them.

The witness quoted the accused as saying that he kept the arms and ammunition in the shop because of the problem of insecurity which led to frequent house-to-house search by the police.

He, however, said the accused presented a license for the double-barrel gun but that the license expired since 2007.

Cross examining the witness, Aliyu’s counsel, Malam Inuwa Idris, said that with the current security challenges in the country, there was the problem of issuance and renewal of firearms licenses.

The counsel objected to the admissibility of the evidence given by the prosecution witness.

But the prosecutor, Mr I. Udoma, an assistant superintendent of police, argued that the evidence was admissible under the Evidence Act which provides that “every evidence that is relevant is automatically admissible”.

He prayed the court to admit the evidence, arguing that the relevance of the evidence was the yardstick for its admissibility.

The trial Judge, Justice Babatunde Quadri, adjourned the case to Feb. 18 and ordered that the accused be remanded in prison.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in the case filed on Jan. 14, the accused was allegedly found with one double-barrel gun, one pistol, one locally-made revolver gun, one SMD model gun and 574 rounds of live ammunition. (NAN)

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