3 women arrested for using rice to smuggle bullets

Three women have been detained by the Nigeria Police Force in connection with a failed plot to smuggle 818 rounds of live ammunition from Kano to Bayelsa.

The three were paraded alongside dozens of other criminal suspects before the media in Abuja on Thursday, June 25, 2020.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, said Eliana Yowie had on her husband's instruction handed over a half bag of rice containing the concealed ammunition to Favour Bello for onward transportation to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital.

Bello was expected to deliver the half bag of rice to her mother, Preye, when she arrived at her destination.

However, Bello was arrested at a motor park in Kano when the carefully concealed live rounds of ammunition were found during a search.

Mba said 718 of the 818 rounds of ammunition were for general purpose machine gun and came in chains.

"With this quantity of arms, you can wreak massive havoc to any community," he said.

25-year-old Yowie told journalists she did not know the content of the bag and only handed it to Bello as her husband instructed on May 28.

"Right now, I'm a victim. Because of trust, I did not check the content (of the bag of rice)," she said.

Bello, 21, also claimed she didn't know what was inside the bag, and was the one that suggested that it be searched when it was considered too heavy at the motor park.

She said Yowie's husband had asked her to take the bag to her mother when she told him she was travelling to Bayelsa.

Yowie's husband, according to Mba, is currently in custody of the Nigerian military. The couple have been married for seven years.