Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The sixth Division of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt, has paraded 12 illegal oil bunkering suspects involved in illegal oil bunkering activities, as well as one fake Army personnel for impersonation.
Parading the suspects, the Commander 6 Division Garrison, Brigadier General EU Effiong, said the suspect were arrested while siphoning crude from the Rumuekpe/Okporowo pipeline near Okobe community in Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State, by men of the Nigerian Army.
Effiong who is also the Commander of Sector 3, Operation Delta Safe Military Joint Taskforce, noted that the suspects were arrested on the 2nd and 3rd of July, assuring that after profiling the suspects the Army will hand over them to the appropriate agency for prosecution.
He explained that parading the suspects was imperative in order to put a face to oil bunkering in the region and to checkmate illegal oil activities.
“We are here to checkmate the activities of illegal bunkering in the Niger Delta because if we do not checkmate these activities, they will affect us and the economy. You know how important crude oil is to our economy, so we want to ensure that those in oil bunkering are not given the freedom to do whatever they want so as not to affect us in terms of the economy.
“Some of the items recovered from the suspects are crude oil, motorcycles, wheelbarrows, and jerricans recovered from the suspects at the point of their arrest.
“The suspects have provided useful information and they will be handed to the appropriate security agency for further investigation and prosecution.”
In another development, the Nigerian Army 6 Division Port Harcourt also paraded a fake soldier, Desmond Okeh, from Okija, Anambra state.
Spokesperson for the Division, Lieutenant Colonel Ikedichi Iweha, the fake soldier was arrested on the 6th of July by the 6 Division Provost group at a new generation Bank in the GRA axis in Port Harcourt.
Iweha explained that the suspect was arrested while fully dressed in the number 6 military camouflage and in possession of a fake military identity card bearing a fake duty number 16NA/75/2038, Lance Corporal Okeh Desmond, and also recovered in the suspect’s possession a fake pass leaflet.
“Upon interrogation, the suspect revealed that he bought the camouflage material at Kotuku Barracks in Kaduna and sewed it at a tailoring shop. While he claimed to have bought the boot from vendors opposite the Alaba International market in Lagos. In his revelations, he got the fake pass from a cybercafe printed for him at control roundabout in Imo State.
“Actually, the suspect on the 15th of May 2022 was arrested for the same offence of being an impostor and he was consequently handed over to a sister security agency for prosecution but unfortunately he is on the street harassing innocent civilians claiming to be a solder.
“The general public should be aware that it is not everybody in military camouflage is a soldier.”
Meanwhile, the suspected fake soldier, Desmond Okeh, explained that it was his love for the military that made him impersonate the Nigeria Army after several failed attempts to join even though recruited through the academy.
He said, “I applied to the Nigeria Army in 2016 but I was not successful. So since then, I have been applying because my result was not good. I was carried away by friends that got accepted into the army because anytime they come around, I feel like I am part of them, that is why I went and bought the uniform and sew it,” he explained.
This article was originally posted at sweetcrudereports.com
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