Thursday 28 October 2010

Nigerian's State Security Service seizes arms shipment


Nigerian's State Security Service has intercepted a large shipment of weapons at the port in Lagos. The police seized 13 containers of arsenal including rocket launchers, artillery rockets, mortar rounds, grenades and other explosives concealed under the tiles. It has not yet been determined to whom the shipment belonged or where it was headed.

News of the seizure has caused speculation about possible outbreaks of violence during next year's elections. Some of the weapons were show to the media and have caused concern among security experts, who have identified the artillery rockets as Norinco rockets used by the Taliban in Afghanistan for high-intensity warfare.

Nigeria's National Security Adviser Andrew Owoye Azazi told the media that the authorities were in the process of establishing the origin of the weapons and their intended destination.

"At this point, the only thing we can say is that we have some armaments we have discovered at the port... Let's not jump to conclusions," said Azazi.

There has been an increase in security measures in Lagos since the 1st October bombings. Security officials have said that there have been some arrests in connection to the arms, but gave no further details.

Source: BBC News

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

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