Last week, a hunter and crime buster, Ali Kwara, cracked down on a robbery gang that led to the arrest of a man who claimed to be a supplier of arms and ammunitions to robbers and ethno-religious warlords during crises. In this chat with Sunday Trust, Sarki Azetu, 31, gives shocking revelations.

As a fisherman in a small village in Benue, Sarki Azetu was that dexterous with net, and according to him, his cast was also superb. But that, however, was not what Azetu wanted in life. "One day I decided to leave this trade and secure a white-collar job in the city, however dangerous and illicit it might have appeared," he said.

Azetu observed that despite his ingenuity in fishing, his desire of becoming rich wouldn't see the light of day if he did not secure for himself a more lucrative venture. From his primary to secondary education, Azetu maintained the trade of fishing until, according to him, he met a notorious armed robbery gang headed by an equally notorious super gun-runner, Ma Awotuni.

According to him, Ma Awotuni, a Jukun by tribe, was the woman who supplied the guns to him. He said all the years he was in the ammunition deal, the major source of the fire arms was the woman. He disclosed that the woman resided in Chad Republic and she is above 40 years of age.

But, no sooner had he begun to realise his dreams - after getting married and building a 3-bedroom house - the unexpected happened. Azetu entered the net of Ali Kwara. The crime buster had kept tab on him for quite a long time and his ambush yielded fruit when he caught, not only Azetu, but also his partners-in-crime.

Asked by this reporter to reveal whether he asked his clients to indicate their intention of purchasing the guns from him, he said: "While some of the clients buy the weapons for domestic security or armed robbery, others tell us that they buy the guns for use during ethnic or religious unrests."

"Do you mean you also sold the guns to ethnic warlords?"

Azetu admitted, saying that, they indeed sold the guns to ethnic militias during ethnic and religious crises. "Yes. I made brisk business during the recent ethnic clash in Plateau State but my heaviest sale was during the Yelwan-Shendam crisis," the gun-runner confessed.

According to him, during the crises, the strongwoman brought a lot of consignment from outside the country. He said when there was a high demand of guns during ethnic strife, the prices of guns and ammunitions skyrocketed. "During the religious crisis in Jos, the price of machineguns jerked up to N900,000," said Azetu.

According to him, Awotuni came to them every two months, with tens of AK-47, machine guns and a cache of ammunitions. "She gives us commission; she is the major supplier and I am the major disposer. I have the buyers, who are mainly robbers and ethnic militiamen, at hand," he said.

According to him, he knew most of the armed robbers and ethnic warlords in Wase, Plateau State. He has therefore become a household name in the underworld.

On whether he regretted engaging into the trade, Azetu said remorsefully that if let-off-hook he would never return to the trade. "I vow not to engage in this act because it is very dangerous," he stated.

He, therefore, told Sunday Trust that he would help Ali Kwara to fish out his clients who are still at large.

On his part, Kwara corroborated Azetu's claim, saying they are the major gun dealers in the country. While explaining the technique he used in arresting the gun dealer, Kwara said, every time he caught a robber or gun-runner, he made them divulge important information regarding their illicit trade and the network of their clientele.

According to Ali Kwara, Azetu's business network was very diverse and some armed robbery gangs he had arrested gave their source of weaponry to Azetu. He said Azetu's gang was dreaded and daring because of the powerful arms they deal in.

"I knew of Azetu and the old woman for quite a long time, but because of the sophistication of their weaponry, it became very difficult for me and the police attached to me to confront them head on," Kwara explained.

He also said that another reason why he delayed the onslaught against the Azetu gang was because he wanted to fully inform the government of his plan to crack down on them. "You know how law and order has deteriorated in the country. When we arrest them, the courts often release them," said he.

The detective said, of all the armed robbers he had arrested, only one gang was sentenced. "In the years I spent in the service to my country, only members of one gang, which attacked the Commandant General of the Civil Defence Corps, were sentenced to death by hanging," he lamented.

"Perhaps members of this gang were sentenced because they were unlucky to have attacked a powerful person, who is the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo's relative," he said.

But, according to Ali Kwara, one of the members of the convicted gang who fled later came back to him to repent, saying he was not a robber but a friend to many robbers. "I feigned ignorance and accommodated him, put him on probation and, in return, he kept revealing a lot of information to me," he told Sunday Trust.

He stated further that after arresting him, Azetu, as a show of repentance, the man linked up with some of those who used to purchase guns from him. He called them and said that he had had four machine guns to sell. "Azetu asked them to buy the guns at N700,000 each, and the leader of the gang obliged," he said, noting that it was through this chain of processes, Azetu, and one other accomplice, entered his net.

"Despite the fact that armed robbery attracts, at least, life sentence, none but the gang I mentioned earlier was ever convicted," revealed Ali Kwara.

While lamenting on how confessed robbers finally gain freedom soon after they are handed over to the relevant authorities, Kwara said that Azetu would be handed over to Taraba State Police Commissioner for further interrogation.

As at Friday, Ali Kwara told Sunday Trust that he had handed over Azetu and his accomplices to Taraba State Police Commissioner Aliyu Musa for further investigation and prosecution.