John Akpabu arrested with hand grenades, ammunition at ministerial briefing

Security agents on Monday morning arrested a male suspect who identified himself as John Akpabu with three hand grenades and some rounds of 7.7mm ammunition hidden in a lady’s bag at the entrance of Radio House, Abuja, venue of a briefing by some ministers on their performance in the last one year.
The briefings, which have been holding on a daily basis in the last two weeks, have been coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Information, as part of the preparations for May 29, celebrated annually as Democracy Day 2012.
The suspect was arrested at the screening point when security agents allegedly took notice of the lady’s bag he was carrying. When challenged, he said he was given the bag by an unnamed woman, who asked him to deliver it to someone at the venue of the briefing.
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.”
The suspect was later taken to the police station while proceedings at the ministerial platform continued.
The Ministers of Justice (Bello Adoke); Aviation (Stella Oduah); Youth Development and Sports (Bolaji Abdullahi) who were listed for Monday to present their scorecards, went ahead with thei presentations.
Oduah took the first shot, during which she said her ministry was “collaborating with the Central bank of Nigeria and other financial institutions to facilitate access to single digit credit facility to airlines.”
She also said her ministry had reviewed guidelines for registering new airlines.
“We’ve commenced the guidelines for the designation of national flag carriers. We have projected the revenue profile from N70 billion to N120 billion and a contribution of three per cent to the national GDP by the end of 2013.
“At the moment, the aviation passenger traffic has recorded 14.6 million in 2011. This is expected to rise to about 34 million in 2026.

“The MMA new power supply project (back-up) is almost completed. We have commenced the process for the development of four new international airports terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano.”
Abdullahi took the stand next, explaining, “$18m has been earmarkd for the training of 100 Nigerian youths to acquire exprncs & emplymnt opport in international organisations.
“We have completed mini sports centres in Kudan-Kaduna; Ogbomosho; Wudil-Kano; Rijau-Niger; Nuguru-Imo; Bida-Niger; Nsulu-Imo. We have also professionalised the National Sports Commission for effective service delivery.”
We will update the story as more details emerge.