INTENSIFIED campaign against crime yielded massive dividends recently when seven general purpose machine guns (GPMG) and several AK-47 rifles were recovered at the Oko Food Market along the Asaba-Onitsha Expressway within the Delta State Capital Territory. In a swift operation on October 15, 2025, a team of the Department of State Services (DSS) stormed the sprawling market, and retrieved five hand grenades and other military grade weapons some of them concealed in bags of beans.
The weapons were transported from Southern Libya; a North African country ravaged by internal wars, through Chad Republic to Nigeria, passing through an illegal route in Giadem, Yobe State, before eventually landing in Delta State in heavy-laden trucks. The icing on the cake was the dramatic capture of the alleged cross-border arms dealer, one Stephen Sabo Atoshi, and his accomplice, a 40 years old high school teacher from Taraba State.
The notorious gun-runner, according to the Deputy Director of the DSS, Delta State Command, Mr. Anthony Ifemeje, confessed to the crime. He disclosed that the suspects were part of a network trafficking small arms and light weapons from Libya to Nigeria. They know the illegal routes and possibly pass as dealers in foodstuff.
Perhaps this is not the first time arms dealers are importing sophisticated weapons to the state, and distributing same across the land. The gun-runners represent a potent source of arms proliferation in the state and all over the country. There’s hardly an outbreak of conflicts in parts of the country in which such deadly weapons will not surface. It is also a possible source of weapons to Fulani herdsmen that had terrorized the North Central and entire Southern Nigeria.
We join the Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, to commend the DSS, Delta State Command, for the swift intervention leading to the interception of the weapons of mass destruction and arrest of the suspects. Without such effort, the arms would have by now been distributed to the final consumers. As indicated by the governor, the outcome represents a major breakthrough in the state’s sustained fight against insecurity. It is in fact a well-deserved blow against insecurity, not only in the state but the entire nation.
The huge success of the DSS could not have been without the possible cooperation of the public who are at the receiving end of criminality and may have tipped off the security agency. We praise such members of the public who may have realized that security is not just for security operatives alone; the public must play their part in having a peaceful and orderly environment to thrive. Such whistle-blowing act is an advocacy that we strongly identify with.
Elated Governor Oborevwori, while urging more of such intervention by security agencies in the state further observed: “…the breakthrough recorded by our security agencies is highly commendable, and significant to the peace and safety of our state.”
Indeed, without peace and safety in the state and other parts of the country, it would be impossible for investors to be attracted to build businesses. No wise business person would invest in a place where there is insecurity. In the last few years, however, the Delta State government has initiated strategic measures to combat crime and reduce it to the barest minimum. Across security agencies, for instance, the state has donated operational vehicles and tools for enhanced policing of the state.
Only days ago, the state government launched the security trust fund with which to fund security operations all over the state. Last April, the State House of Assembly passed the Community Security Bill, which is awaiting the governor’s assent. The essence of the envisaged law is to empower various communities to establish community-based security systems to strengthen the entire security network in the state.
Drawing from the experience of the DSS, we urge other security agencies in the state to close ranks, up their game and sustain their surveillance of the state particularly the hot spots to nip crime in the bud before they manifest.
We also urge members of the public, whether in the urban or rural areas, to cooperate and collaborate with the security operatives by promptly reporting strange, negative activities or even suspicious characters in their domains to the nearest security agency. This, perhaps, is a strategic way to effectively activate the order to crackdown on criminals in the state as given by the governor.
