Army hands over fake soldier to police

From our correspondent in Jos

The Special Task Force (STF) set up by the Federal Government to restore peace in Jos following last January civil unrest has handed over a fake soldier to plateau state police Command for prosecution just as incidents of fake soldiers is now rampant in the state

The fake soldier who was identified as Sambo Tomchangyel was at the weekend handed over by the Coordinator Media Centre, STF, Brigadier General Donald Oji who later handed him to the Plateau state Command on behalf of STF Commander.

While handing over the suspect to the police, General Oji said, “Tomchangyel was arrested at Kuru area on Monday 11th March 2010 about 2:30 in the afternoon while impersonating as a Lieutenant in the Nigerian Army, he was fully dressed, but for the watchful eye of the members of the STF, he would have gone away free”.

A preliminary investigation according to Oji reveals that “the gentleman has been going about parading himself as a medical officer in the Nigerian Army, in some areas as an Army Corps of Engineers”.

He added that reports reveals that the suspects hailed from Kanke local government area of Plateau state “and that his primary assignment is to source for the new camouflage uniform that the members of the STF are wearing with the identification tag, the purpose for which we don’t know yet”.
“That was why he was arrested and we now want to formally hand him over to the police for further investigation through which other things will be unraveled about his mission to procure the uniform”.

The Assistant Commissioner C.I.D of the Plateau state Command Mr. Femi Adeleye who received the suspects on behalf of the command thanked the Nigerian army for their arrest as well as the handing over of the suspect and further assured that a thorough investigation will be conducted on the matter.