A man who gave his name as John Akpabu was arrested with 3 grenades and 37 rounds of AK47 ammunitions around 12:00pm today at the Radio House, Area 10, Abuja.
Radio House is the venue of the ongoing ministerial briefings ahead of the Democracy Day celebrations.
The building also serves as the headquarters of Radio Nigeria and houses the National Press Centre which is being used for the briefings. Among those at the briefing this morning are the Minister of Youths and Sports and that of Aviation.
The suspect had gained entry already into the compound housing the building and was arrested trying to gain entry into the main building.
Security checks at the venue was markedly heightened from early Monday morning, before the arrest of the man, and a new detachment of soldiers and mobile policemen were on ground helping the usual guards at the building frisk visitors.
The suspect has been taken away for questioning by security operatives.
Sources at the FCT Police Command have confirmed to Daily Trust that the suspect is indeed in their custody and the Command will issue a statement as soon as it has gathered more details concerning his mission.
The Chief Security Officer at Radio House, Mr James Akindele, told reporters that the suspect was arrested at the main entrance.
Akindele said: “This afternoon, our operatives arrested a man with rounds of 7.7 mm live ammunition and three 86 hand grenades, all concealed in a polythene bag and put in a black bag.
“We have not interrogated him, we just apprehended him. What we want to do now is to hand him over to the police for further investigation and then you will all get to know more about his case.”
An earlier story had erroneously described the man as also being in possession of an AK47 rifle.
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Source: Daily Trust
