Police uncover huge stock of military uniform, reveal importer

Abia State Police Command has impounded a large quantity of military uniforms allegedly imported from China and stocked at a warehouse in Aba.

Commissioner of Police, Mr Anthony Ogbizi, made this disclosure at the Umuahia Central Police Station on Tuesday.

Ogbizi said that the owner of the warehouse, one Michael Onuoha, was arrested for alleged conspiracy, aiding and abetting the unlawful procurement, importation and possession of the uniforms, which were mainly camouflage.

He alleged that the Managing Director of Messrs U.U Iruoha, one Uche Iruoha, popularly called Urchman, shipped the uniforms in a container to Apapa Port, Lagos, from where they were transported to Aba in March.

The police commissioner said that Onuoha was arrested on August 16 but that Iruoha was still in China.

Brig.-Gen. Abubakar Ibrahim, the Commander, 14 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Ohafia, who accompanied the police boss at the briefing, said that the army was worried by the development.

According to NAN, Ibrahim said that it was disturbing that unscrupulous persons wear military uniforms and camouflage to commit crimes.

He said that the organisation was collaborating with the police and other security agencies to check the phenomenon and ensure that perpetrators were arrested and brought to book.

In a related development, the police also arrested two officials of a new generation bank in Umuahia for alleged conspiracy to defraud a high profile customer of the bank.

The suspects, which included a Marketer, Mr Promise Nwangene, and Customer Service Officer, Kenneth Ebereonu, were alleged to have collected the bank account details of the customer, names withheld, including the Bank Verification Number and Automated Teller Machine, which they posted online.

The police commissioner said “their intention was to begin to steal the N1 million in the account but nemesis caught up with them.”

He alleged that Nwangene “in a bid to pass the information to his accomplice, Kenneth, mistakenly sent it to a WhatsApp group chat, where it was intercepted by a friend of the customer, who alerted the management of the bank.”

Nwangene told newsmen that they collected the bank details in order to reactivate the account for the owner and that no fraud was intended.

He said that he saved the information to be able to access it for the reactivation of the account but “mistakenly” posted it online.

To further diffuse the allegation of fraud, the two suspects said that no money had been removed from the account since July 1, when the information was posted, to date.

“We would have started removing money from the account or eloped since July 1, if the intention was to commit fraud,” they said.

-Daily Post