Twelve suspected oil thieves and one fake Army personnel, Desmond Okeh, had been arrested and paraded by the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Speaking while parading the suspects at the Headquarters of the 6 Division Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, the Commander of the Division Garrison, Brigadier General E.U. Effiong, said that the essence of parading the suspects was to put an end to oil bunkering in the region.
“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 product is to our economy, so we want to ensure that the oil bunkers are not given the freedom to do whatever they want so as not to affect us in terms of the economy,” he said.
Effiong, who is also the Commander of Sector 3, Operation Delta Safe Military Joint Taskforce, noted that after profiling the suspects the Army would hand them over to the appropriate security agency for prosecution.
Meanwhile, earlier, the spokesperson for the Division, Lieutenant Colonel Ikedichi Iweha, in a statement said the fake soldier is from Okija Local Government Area of Anambra State.
Okeh 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 ID card bearing a fake duty of 16NA/75/2038, Lance Corporal Okeh Desmond, and also recovered in the suspect’s possession a fake pass leaflet.
“Upon interview, 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. He revealed that he got the fake pass from a cyber cafe printed for him at control roundabout in Imo State.” He further revealed that the suspect had been arrested in 2022 for the same offence.
“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 soldier.”
He urged the public to be aware that it is not everybody in military camouflage that is a soldier.
Also, for the 12 oil bunkering suspects, Iweha stated that they were arrested on the 2nd and 3rd of July.
He said troops operating around Rumuekpe arrested the suspects with illegal oil products and they were apprehended while siphoning crude from the Rumuekpe/ Okporowo pipeline near Okoba community in Ahoada East Council of Rivers State.
Some of the items recovered from them are some quantity of crude oil, motorcycles, wheelbarrows, and jerry cans at the point of their arrest.
He added that the suspects have provided useful information and they will take the investigation and would be handed to the appropriate security agency for prosecution.
Iweha said the essence of the parade of suspects is to put faces behind illegal oil bunkering which is rampant in the state. Communities are enjoined to take hold of their youths.
Reacting, the suspect, Okeh, explained that it was his love for the military that made him to impersonate the army after several failed attempts to join, even though recruited through the academy.
“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 correct. 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.
He denied using the uniform to steal, explaining that he only executed a lady to bring in bunkering products at GRA when he was caught.