I paraded myself as soldier to pay for my exam – Suspect
A 29- year-old man, Akinsola Abiodun Emmanuel has disclosed that he paraded himself as a soldier in order to raise fund for a mandatory examination. Emmanuel who hailed from Abeokuta, Ogun State was arrested Friday last week by the police’s Special Anti–Robbery Squad (SARS), while he was escorting a truck loaded with 297 bags of […]
A 29- year-old man, Akinsola Abiodun Emmanuel has disclosed that he paraded himself as a soldier in order to raise fund for a mandatory examination.
Emmanuel who hailed from Abeokuta, Ogun State was arrested Friday last week by the police’s Special Anti–Robbery Squad (SARS), while he was escorting a truck loaded with 297 bags of weed suspected to be Indian hemp.
But defending his action, Emmanuel said he attended Cosmography Institute in Victoria Island, Lagos in 2010 where he obtained an ordinary diploma in nautical science and was trained as a merchant navy in 2013.
He added that there was mandatory examination which he needed to write in Nigeria or Ghana, and which would cost him N270,000.
He said since there was nobody to assist him, he decided to help himself by using his navy uniform which he got during his course of study, to give security to some churches and get paid for the service .
“I used to ask some pastors in Rivers State if they needed security service for their churches. If they were interested, I would get four or five policemen to join me and we usually shared what the pastors gave us. Sometimes, we got paid N7,000 or N10,000,” he said.
He disclosed that he sewed his army camouflage at Aba, Abia State at the cost of N3,500 and snatched one of the toy guns he was using in his operation from a gang of armed robbers some months back when he was assisting some policemen in arresting the armed robbers. He added that he snatched the other toy gun from a woman who was selling toys in a market.
The fake soldier said that he did not regret his actions as he had always dreamt to be a soldier in order to render voluntary service to humanity.