Posted on: 05:34 Sat, 23 Apr 2016



A man impersonating as a serving
officer in the Nigerian Army, Mr.
Prince Onyemauche has been
arrested by the Army for
prosecution.

Mr Onyemauche was arrested
alongside a serving senior non-
commissioned officer, SSgt Jacob
Phillip at about 3.00 a.m. along
Wazobia Motor Park, Gwagwalada,
Abuja in February, 2016 by troops
of the 176 Special Forces Guards
Battalion.

The suspect was driving a grey-
coloured Toyota Tacoma pick-up
van with registration No. Lagos LSD
05 BM at the time of his arrest.

He had earlier escaped check at the
Abaji military checkpoint on the
same day where he had told the
soldiers that he was a Colonel in
the Army, but the soldiers promptly
reported the incident which led to
his arrest in Gwagwalada.

Following the arrest, both suspects
were moved to Gwagwalada
Barracks where a search on their
vehicle revealed that they were in
possession of illegally acquired
weapons.



The search revealed an AK 47
assault rifle with registration No.
3290 and four ammunition
magazines. Two of the magazines
were empty while the other two
were loaded with 42 rounds of 7.62
mm ammunition.

A Luger pistol with 21 rounds of
9mm ammunition and the sum of
N1,011,300.00k were also
recovered from the vehicle.

Other items recovered from the
suspects included six GSM handsets,
one Samsung Galaxy tablet, 12
check booklets, six ATM cards, a
driver’s licence and a voters’ card
belonging to Mr Onyemauche as
well as a temporary driver’s
licence belonging to one Mr Rasaq
Olanrewaju.

The rest items recovered from them
were one expended case of 9 mm
pistol ammunition, seven sets of
fund transfer forms for Zenith
Bank and Ecobank, and a sales
invoice No. 19822 issued to one
Blessed Triplet Pharmacy.



Preliminary investigations also
revealed that Mr Onyemauche has
long formed the habit of illegally
using soldiers as escorts while
travelling outside Lagos to his
village in Imo State and sometimes
to Abuja.

Three soldiers including SSgt Phillip
already identified as travelling
with the suspect without official
authorization are now awaiting
trial by a military court-martial
while Mr Onyemauche will be
handed over to the Nigeria Police
for further investigation and
prosecution.

While parading the suspect today,
Army spokesman, Colonel Sani
Usman, urged the general public to
always have in mind that not all
persons that claim to be military
personnel are truly so, adding that
where people suspect foul play on
encountering such persons, they
should be quickly reported to the
law-enforcement agencies, the
Military Police or at any nearest
military barracks