Nigeria said on Wednesday it had intercepted an illegal cache of arms at the port in Lagos, five months after a similar seizure in the city, a spokesman told AFP.
"Following intelligence reports, our operatives on Monday inspected a 40-foot container at the Tin Can port in Apapa, Lagos, and found 440 pieces of assorted pump action rifles and other accessories of the guns," said Joseph Attah.
The consignment originated in Turkey and was covered with plaster of Paris to try to avoid detection, he added.
One suspect was arrested and investigations were under way to determine the intended recipient of the illegal shipment, Attah said.
Nigeria is facing a series of security threats across the country, including Boko Haram attacks in the northeast and militants who have targeted oil and gas infrastructure in the south.
Violence between farmers and herdsmen persists in the central states and kidnapping for ransom in the south, and, increasingly, the north.
In January, customs officers intercepted a truck carrying 661 illegal pump action rifles along a road in Apapa -- after it had been cleared at the port.
AKP GOVERNMENT SHIPPED ARMS TO NIGERIA BEFORE
In 2014, a senior adviser to the then-Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed shipments of weapons to Nigeria with the country’s national airline, the leaked telephone conversation suggests.
In the recording, a voice, alleged to be that of a Turkish Airlines official, is heard urgently discussing what appear to be weapons deliveries with another man, alleged to be Mustafa Varank, a senior aide to Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In the leaked phone tapes, a voice alleged to be that of Mehmet Karataş, an executive at the airline said: "Are they going to kill Muslims or are they going to kill Christians? I’m feeling sinful, you know," The recording, which had no date, was posted on YouTube. In recent years, Nigeria has been the scene of fierce fighting between the army and Boko Haram, an Islamist terror group.
The voice alleged to be that of Varank promises to respond in “a day or two” after speaking to “Mr Hakan”, which a text accompanying the recording said was a reference to Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s spy chief.
