Desmond Okeh was arrested for impersonation, according to the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt, while 12 other people were taken into custody for allegedly participating in illegal oil bunkering.
The 12 suspects were allegedly apprehended by Division troops while attempting to siphon crude oil from the Rumuekpe/Okporowo pipeline close to the Okoba hamlet in Rivers State’s Ahoada East Local Government Area.
Brigadier General Edi Effiong, the garrison commander of the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army Headquarters in Port Harcourt, said this on Monday when presenting the suspects to the media.
The suspects would be turned over to the proper agency for prosecution, according to Effiong, who also serves as the Commander of Sector 3 of the Operation Delta Safe Military Joint Taskforce.
Effiong stated, “These ones that have been grabbed, 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 Defense Corps that is in charge after profiling and getting some information from them. ”
The Garrison Commander added, “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.
“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.”
Earlier, the spokesperson for the Division, Lieutenant Colonel Ikedichi Iweha, said the fake soldier is from Okija in Anambra state, saying it was the second he was been nabbed for the same crime.
He said the suspect (Okeh) was arrested on the 6th of July, 2023 by the 6 Division Provost group at a new generation Bank in the GRA axis in Port Harcourt fully kitted in military camouflage and a fake military Identity Card.
The 6 Division spokesman further said Okey was bearing a fake duty of 16NA/75/2038, ‘Lance Corporal Okeh Desmond’, and also recovered in the suspect’s possession a fake pass leaflet.