It was the end of the road yesterday for six impersonators of naval personnels who were nabbed by men of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Wey in Lagos.
The suspects, including the son of a policeman; dismissed naval rating and an employee of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) were paraded at the Navy Town, Ojo by NNS WEY’s Commander, Commodore Ignatus Iliya.
Aliu Jubril; Usman Shehu; Imily Victor; Mohammed Yahaya; and Anyanwu Chimezie, Iliya explained were caught with military uniforms (including navy’s), identity cards, caps during the ongoing raid to flush out fake naval personnels who extort money from unsuspecting members of the public.
Iliya said: “Shehu who, is supposed to be a member of staff of NPA had two identity cards; one for NPA and another for Navy. I do not know what he is doing with them. Nemesis caught up with him as he was driving through our gate and identified himself as a Lieutenant and even showed his identify card.
“But the eagled eye operatives spotted him with another identity card bearing NPA and when he was subjected to questioning, he could not give reasonable reply. He was subsequently arrested and when his apartment was searched, incriminating documents were recovered.
“Imily was arrested in complete Navy uniform at Okokomaiko. During investigation, he mentioned some of his friends that were involved. One of them is Amaechi, who is currently at large. When we got to his house, we found both Naval and Army uniform including other items. “Among the recovered items were pictures of him in complete Navy uniform and where he posed with serving Military personnel, apparently to deceive people.
“What he does is to catch in on any occasion organised by serving military personnel and would end up taking shots of himself and them.
“Yahaya has been parading himself as Peter, Paul, John and Nasiru. He said he was a Christian but converted to Islam. He was arrested in a Navy pull over and combat trouser, in Navy quarters, inside Navy town.
“He came to visit a rating who we are currently on the look out for. When his phone contact was scrolled, we contacted one Jubril to come and identify him and when he came, he was arrested. During investigation, he was discovered to be a dismissed rating who was teaching Jubril the norms in the Navy.
“Chimezie, otherwise known as simplicity, was also arrested in complete Navy uniform. What gave him away was when he paid homage to a subordinate inside our barracks, which is never the case.”
The suspects, according to Commodore Iliya, would be handed over to the police for prosecution.
But some of the suspects denied being impersonators. They insisted that they are members of the Merchant Navy.
Yahaya, whose father is a retired policeman, claimed that he bought navy regalia at Cotonou, Benin Republic for N3, 500.
“I admit I am wrong because I am not naval personnel. I only use the uniform whenever I am ridding my motorcycle to avoid being stopped by policemen. I started using it this year and did not consider using police uniform because even policemen who ride motorcycle use military uniforms.
Usman, the NPA staff said he also works as a Merchant Navy personnel, adding that he made the navy identity card after listening to a friend’s advice.
“I am a staff of NPA and also a Merchant Navy. I was on board a ship when somebody came and suggested that there was need for us to do Navy identity card, that the Navy and NPA work hand-in-hand. That was how I got the Navy identity card. But I did not know he was lying,” he said.
For the dismissed rating, Jubril, he was a victim of circumstance because he was not directly involved.
“I got a call from one Biu that my friend, Nasiru was admitted at the Nigerian Navy reference hospital, Navy town. I rushed there only to discover that he was arrested for impersonating a naval rating.
