The Abia State Police Command on Thursday said it had arrested a 22-two-year-old man, Ukpabi Kenneth, for claiming to be a soldier in the Nigerian Army.
A police source, told Sothern City News that Kenneth was arrested by the men of the Nigerian Army at the Isi-Court axis of Umuahia while attempting to rob an unidentified man of his motorcycle.
It was gathered that the suspect had presented a fake identity card of an Army Colonel, which he had been using to intimidate unsuspecting members of the public.
The source added that seven passport photographs of the suspect on military camouflage uniform, one Access Bank Automated Teller Machine card belonging to Eno Nto and a fake military identity card was found on the suspect at the point of arrest.
Confessing to the crime, the suspect, who claimed to be a final year student in the Department of Civil Engineering in Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, said he forged the identity card in order to recover his motor cycle that was collected from him at gun point.
He claimed that he identified the motorcycle few days after it was taken away from him by unknown gunmen at Isi Court in Umuahia.
He said, “I’m not an army colonel. My Identify card was photo shopped. The person you saw on the ID card is one my Facebook friends who is a soldier. I downloaded his picture from his Facebook account.
“I forged the identity card because my motorcycle was stolen from me by gunmen at Isi-Court sometime this year when I was coming back from Aba.
“The incident happened at night when I saw some people flashing light on me. I thought they were policemen because they were in black, so I parked and they showed me gun, attacked me and collected my motorcycle from me. That made me angry and I went back to the Army check point at Ubakala and reported the incident, but they referred me to the police.“So, when I went to a police station in Umuahia to report the case, they asked me to bring N20, 000 for fuel to enable them to arrest the criminals, I told them that I had only N4, 000, but they did not agree to go with me, that was why I forged the identity card with my laptop, so that I could use it to recover my bike.
“I didn’t do it to kill or intimidate people; it was only for the purpose of recovering my bike. I’m not aware the Identity card will land me in trouble. I’m pleading for forgiveness.”
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Anthony Ogbizi, confirmed the matter, adding that the suspect would be charged to court for prosecution.