NO fewer than 1,000 illegally acquired AK 47 rifles are in the hands of private individuals in Kogi Central Senatorial District of Kogi State, the state's Commissioner of Police, Mr Muhammed Musa Katsina has said.

He disclosed this to newsmen on Friday, while parading more suspects arrested in connection with the recent killings at Deeper Life Bible Church and the killing of the two military officers in the district.

Those paraded included a pastor who assisted the suspected leader of the gang that led the attacks, Sadiq, also variously known as Yekini and Sani, from whom two rifles belonging to the slain soldiers were recovered; his wife and the owner of his rented apartment, located near the attacked church.

The police chief said the young wife of the suspected mastermind of the attack, whose name was given simply as Ajara, who was arrested on Sunday, 19 August, lied to the police that she met her spouse in January 2012 and that they had been living in the apartment since October 2011, after seeing the landlady who was arrested separately.

Katsina noted that “there is no Boko Haram in Okene” and what was witnessed in the state in the past few weeks were “pure cases of armed robbery and political attack.”

He lamented that 99 percent of perpetrators of the crimes in Okene were Ebira.

“In fact, they are calling from Kano State that most of the arrests made there had to do with people from Okene and we should come and pack them.”

He hinted that some of the people had mastered the art of bomb making, which they sell to armed robbers in other states.

He, however, said efforts were being intensified to ascertain the motive behind the Okene attack.

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