A 22 two-year-old man identified as Ukpabi Kenneth is currently in the custody of the Abia State Police Command for claiming to be a colonel in the Nigerian Army.
A Police source said Kenneth was arrested by the men of the Nigerian Army at the Isi-Court axis of Umuahia, the State Capital in an attempt 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 a military camouflage, one Access bank ATM card belonging to one Eno Nto and one 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 of civil engineering, in Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, said he forged the identity card in order to recover the motorcycle that was collected from him at gunpoint.
He claimed that he identified the motorcycle a few days after it was taken away from him by gunmen at Isi- Court in Umuahia.
He said, “I am not an army colonel, my identity card was photoshopped. The person you saw on the I.D card is one of 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 Police because they were on black, so I parked and they showed me a gun, attacked me and collected my motorcycle from me. That made me angry and I went back to the Army checkpoint at Ubakala and reported the incident, but they referred me to the police.
“So when I went to a Police station in Umuahia and reported the case, they asked me to bring N20, 000 for fuel to enable them arrest the criminals, I told them that I have only N4000, but they did not agree to go with me.
“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 into trouble, I’m pleading for forgiveness.”
The Commissioner of Police in the State Mr. Anthony Ogbizi has confirmed the Case. He said the suspect would be charged to Court for prosecution.
