Army arrests 13 fake officers in Lagos

Operatives of 81 Division, Nigerian Army have arrested 13 fake military personnel, including a Lt. Col., Afolabi Hassan and a Major, Afolabi Allen Adegboyega, who have been parading themselves as senior officers of the army for 12 years.

The suspects who were arrested during the ongoing ‘Operation Checkmate’ had various military accoutrements in their possession.

Parading the suspects at the division’s headquarters, Victoria Island in Lagos, on Thursday, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 81 Division, Maj. Gen. Olu Irefin, revealed that the impostors were arrested based on credible information.

Giving details of their arrest, Irefin said the fake lieutenant colonel was arrested wearing complete army woodland camouflage uniform with rank badge, and a military police badges.

According to him, preliminary findings had it that the said Hassan, had been impersonating as an army officer since 2008 and had been previously arrested for the offence.

It was learnt that a search executed at the suspect’s residence at No. 19 Clem Road, Ojokoro, Lagos, led to the discovery of one army pullover, one woodland camouflage T-Shirt and five army uniforms.

Irefin said: “I think one thing the lockdown has done for Lagos state is that our ‘Operation checkmate’, which was initially meant to check our soldiers from breaking the law, is yielding more results.

“Today, we have 13 impostors paraded. We have a lieutenant colonel, a major, and you will be shocked at the level they are impersonating.

“They had big picture frames, with pictures of them wearing their fake ranks. When you check their Facebook page, they also claimed to be army officers. Hassan had used fake provost letter-headed paper to apply for visa.

“Unfortunately for him, that is a wrong channel of applying for visa because we don’t do it directly. When all these people create problems within the Lagos environment or up to Ogun state, one will see them and say Nigerian Army.”

As a way of ending the scourge of military impersonation, Irefin urged security agencies on law- enforcement to always check the identity cards of soldiers, to verify they are not impostors.

He said the army authority will find out how the suspects got the uniforms and then hand them over to the police for prosecution.

“So, I want to use this medium to appeal to every law -abiding citizen, security agencies, that occasions where they see soldiers on the road, they should be bold to ask them of their identity cards.

“Where they have doubts, they should make contact with military units and we will be able to make the arrest.

“All these arrest you see is based on information and the ‘Operation Checkmate’. We will continue with the operation to rid Lagos and it’s environ of these criminal element,” he said.

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Speaking on how he got the military accoutrements in his possession, the 45-year-old Hassan said he bought them from Abacha Barracks Market in Abuja.

Hassan, who also claimed to be a dismissed soldier since 2016, said he was arrested at Abule-Egna area of Lagos.

For 52-year-old Adegboyega, his posing as a military personnel was to scare land grabbers who had threatened to take over his property at Sango, Ogun dtate.

A search was conducted at Adegboyega’s residence at Olugba Community, Ilogbo Road, Ogun state, where an enlarged picture of him in army woodland camouflage with a captain rank badge, two sign posts, camouflage uniforms and handcuffs were found.

He claimed to be the owner of a private security outfit called System Protection Executive Security. A check on his Facebook account also revealed pictures of him in various military uniform.

Other arrested suspects include Joseph Okere, Emmanuel Akpaka, Frank Eze, Ahmed Ameh, Sunday Olawale, Siasia Sunday, Festus Nwanozie, Ebenezer Adeleke, Joseph Gabriel, Ibe Eze and Joel Akpan.