On Tuesday, the Nigerian Army’s 6 Division in Rivers State announced the arrest of 12 oil thieves and an alleged fake soldier, Desmond Okeh.
According to the army, the alleged oil thieves were apprehended illegally bunkering and siphoning crude oil from the Rumuekpe/Okporowo pipeline in Okoba community in Rivers State’s Ahoada East Local Government Area.
Brig. Gen. Edi Effiong, the Garrison Commander, revealed this while paradeing the suspects in front of reporters.
According to Effiong, who is also the Commander of Sector 3, Operation Delta Safe Military Joint Task Force, said the culprits would be handed over to the appropriate agency for prosecution.
He stated, “These ones that have been nabbed, first of all, we will profile them. We are not the prosecuting agency, so, we will hand them over to the prosecuting agency.
“For oil bunkering activities, it is the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps that is in charge. (We will hand them over) after profiling and getting some information from them.
“We are here to checkmate illegal bunkering activities in the Niger Delta, because if we do not checkmate these activities, they will affect us and the economy.
Earlier, the Division’s spokesperson, Lt. Col. Ikedichi Iweha, claimed the phony soldier was from Okija in Anambra State and that this was the second time he had been apprehended for the same act.
He stated that the suspect was apprehended on July 6 by the 6 Division Provost Group at a new generation bank in Port Harcourt’s GRA axis.
Okeh, according to him, was fully dressed in military camouflage and exhibited a false military identity card with the name ‘Lance Corporal Okeh Desmond’ and the duty number 16NA/75/2038.
According to the army, a false pass leaflet was discovered from the suspect.
“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 boots from vendors opposite the Alaba International Market in Lagos, in his revelations, he said he got the fake pass from a cyber cafe, which printed it for him at the control roundabout in Imo State,” the army spokesperson said.
He warned the people to be cautious since not everyone dressed in military camouflage is a soldier.
Okeh, though, told reporters that it was his passion for the army that drove him to conduct the crime.
“I applied to the Nigerian Army in 2016, but I was not successful.
“I got carried away by the fact that my friends got accepted into the army and anytime they come around, I feel like I am one of them. That is why I went and bought the uniform and sewed it,” he stated.
