The Sun News On-line|Abuja Reports

For septuagenarian, Idris Abubakar, life itself is a wheel that moves with time. And that, perhaps, explains his split image which changes in line with his momentary desire.

But after being caught red-handed in possession of two sophisticated rifles, Abubakar sang discordant tunes in police custody, while explaining how he came about the deadly weapons.

Described as an Imam by the police, he, however, says he is not fit to wear the toga of a pure and sinless religious leader. Rather, he claimed to be an Arabic teacher, a vocation he enjoyed while it lasted several years ago before becoming a hunter. Sadly, either by sheer ill-luck or fate, that transformation has put him into deep trouble.

Though denying the allegation of gun-running and attempt to promote religious conflict hanged on his neck by the police, the grandpa who hails from Kogi State, admitted being in possession of the arms recovered from him, but gave an explanation which police anti-robbery detectives handling his case are finding difficult to swallow.

“I am not truly an Imam. I was an Arabic teacher for several years before I went into hunting. It was in the course of one of my expeditions that I saw the guns buried somewhere, so I dug them out and took them to my house. One day, someone came to my house, and I showed him the guns.
Then one man came and said he needed to use one, so I gave him, but I didn’t sell it to him”, he told his interrogators.

Calm and unruffled, Abubakar told a short story of his life, how he metamorphosed from Arabic teaching to hunting to eke a living, before landing into trouble in circumstances beyond his comprehension. To him, he had not committed any crime by dutifully taking possession of arms he found in the forest. Neither does he feel obliged to report his strange find to the police.

However, he is not facing the music alone in the offence for which he is being held. Arrested along with him is one Ali Saleh, both of whom are being charged for conspiracy and unlawful possession of arms. According to the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, the two suspects were arrested on information and have confessed upon interrogation, that the arms were to be used to promote religious conflicts. He alleged that two G-3 rifles were recovered from them.

Saleh and Abubakar are not the only ones presently facing the long arms of the law over possession of illegal firearms. Gona Ibrahim is also waiting to keep a date with the law. The police said he was arrested recently in Wawa area of Niger state, following information that members of a vigilante group in Minna, the state capital, were involved in a robbery attack.

Unlike his cohorts, Gona was unlucky to escape when the police raided their hideout. He was arrested and later bundled to the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) in Abuja. Allegedly recovered from him were one FNC rifle, six single barrel guns and 40 rounds of live catridges. Like grandpa Abubakar, Gona has reportedly admitted knowledge of the weapons recovered from the hideout where he was nabbed.

While claiming to be caught for finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, he has however, not been able to convincingly explain his mission in the devil’s den where a large cache of arms and ammunition were being kept.