Grace Ayeni, a mother of three, who is one of the 13 people paraded on Thursday, May 17, for masquerading as military personnel within Lagos and Ogun states by the Operation Checkmate Team of the 81 Division of Nigerian Army said she does so to avoid paying transport fare.

Ayeni narrated: “I was caught with an Army cap. I wear it to work to avoid paying transport fare because I earn N20,000 monthly but the agent collects N5,000, thereby leaving me with only N15,000 and I have children. I did not steal with uniform.” 

CEOAFRICA gathered that some of the impostors were discovered to be dismissed soldiers who claimed to be wearing the uniforms to avoid paying transport fare also. Others who never had anything to do with the military said they used the uniforms to escort tokunbo cars, for a fee of N5,000.

Tanko Satumari, one of the impostors, alleged to have been arrested while driving a Hilux van with siren, said: “I am a dismissed soldier. I was dismissed because I left work for more than the mandated time, when we were still fighting the war against Boko Haram. "The Army uniform I wore is mine. I know it was wrong for me to still wear it after I have been dismissed.”

Also paraded by the General Officer Commanding 81 Division, Major-General Enobong Udoh, were suspected members of the Eiye confraternity alleged to have launched an attack on their rivals at the just concluded Magbo festival in Ikorodu area of the state. Udoh said that, “On arrival, troops met a chaotic scene where seven vehicles were vandalised, property destroyed and some law-abiding citizens injured.

On intervention by the soldiers, seven suspected cultists most of whom were of the Eiye Confraternity were apprehened. “Items recovered from them include seven mobile phones, three ATM cards, one identity card, eight belts, one wallet, four rings, three wrist watches, black substance suspected to be charms and N13,080.

Remember that it has been reported previously that the Nigerian Army arrested some alleged pipeline vandals engaging in illegal bunkering around Magboro area on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway saying the success was recorded through information on their activities by some Nigerians.