Viral video of foreign arms dealer’s arrest not new – Army

The Nigerian Army has dismissed a viral video making the rounds on social media purporting to reveal the recent arrest of a foreign arms dealer, Shehu Ali Kachalla.

In the said viral video, Kachalla, while being paraded by the police on Friday, admitted to having sold no fewer than 450 rifles to different criminal gangs across the north-west region with the support of unnamed military personnel.

Reacting to the viral video, in a statement by the Acting Director of Army Public Relations, Lieutenant Colonel Appolonia Anele, on Thursday, the Army made clarification that the arrest was not linked to any recent military operation, noting that no Nigerian Army personnel were arrested or indicted in the case.

The statement partly read, “The Nigerian Army is aware of a video currently circulating on various social media platforms purporting to show the arrest of a foreign arms dealer, Shehu Ali Kachalla, as a recent development linked to Nigerian Army operations in Zamfara State.

“The Nigerian Army wishes to categorically state that the said video is not recent. To set the record straight, the individual featured in the footage, Shehu, Ali Kachalla, a 30-year-old Nigerien national, was arrested by the Zamfara State Police Command on 14 May 2021 in a joint intelligence-led operation involving operatives of the FIB and the STS of the Nigeria Police Force. The suspect confessed to having illegally supplied over 450 rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition to criminal elements across Zamfara, Kaduna, and Niger States.

“The resurgence of the old video on social media is therefore, at best, aimed at misinforming the public, while undermining the ongoing counter-terrorism and anti-banditry efforts of the Nigerian Armed Forces.”