Three bag jail term for unlawful possession of locally-made gun

A Magistrates’ Court in Jos on Tuesday sentenced three persons, Adamu Haruna, Umar Abdullahi, and Mwazu Salihu to 18 months imprisonment each for unlawful possession of a locally-made gun magazine.

The Chief Magistrate, Adar Baraje, handed down the sentence after the convicts had pleaded guilty to the one-count charge of unlawful possession of a locally-made magazine of revolver gun.

She, however, gave them an option of N12, 000 fine each.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Sgt. Ijuptil Thawur, told the court that the case was reported on Dec. 30, 2019. He added that the case was transferred from the Police Divisional Headquarters, Bokkos, to the state’s Criminal Investigative Department (CID) for discreet investigation. Thawur said that a raid was carried out in Masharkut village of Bokkos Local Government Area by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Thomas Shehu and his team. The prosecutor said the team arrested the defendants in possession of a magazine without a license or any authorisation to bear the same.

According to him, during police investigation, the defendants confessed to being in possession of the locally-made magazine without a license.

The prosecutor said the offence contravened Section 27 subsection 1(A)(I) subsection “B” (ii) of the Firearms Act. Cap F28, LFN, 2004.