SAN FRANCISCO, August 07, (THEWILL) – A Magistrate Court sitting in Aba South Local Government Area, Abia State presided over by Chijioke Nwogu has sentenced a 23-year-old man, Kelechi Uche, to three years imprisonment for impersonation and illegal possession of military property.
Uche, an indigene of Okposi in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State was arraigned before the Aba South Magistrate Court on a two-count charge.
Police prosecutor, Corporal Galadima Rubise, in a suit, MAS/ 343C/3013, accused Uche of falsely presenting himself as Isaac Atuma, a serving 2nd Lieutenant in Nigerian Army and also for being in possession of two Nigerian Army identity cards and insignia with the intent to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.
Rubise said the offences committed by the accused were punishable under Cap.80 volume 3 section 484 and 109 laws of Abia State Criminal Code .
After the charges were read to him,Uche pleaded guilty to both charges as he requested for the continuation of his trial by the magistrate.
Taking his plea, Uche told the court that contrary to police allegation that he was a welder at Azikiwe road, Abia State, he was a military personnel who served at 44 Infantry Battalion in Kaduna and was dismissed in 2012 when his father’s death forced him to go on Away Without Leave (AWOL) for four months, having been refused permission by the army authority to go and bury his father as the first son.
Before sentencing him, Magistrate said “I want to send you to prison so that you will be rehabilitated. You have no sense of remorse yet and you want to jeopardise the joint operation of the military and the police.
“The prison will make you a very reformed person and to become a better man for yourself and your society.
“You may even end up becoming a born-again and opening a Church to help. reform others after you may have spent two or three years in prison.”
The presiding Judge however gave Uche fine options of N50, 000 and N20, 000 on count one and two charges respectively or to serve two years in Aba federal prisons with hard labour.
Nwogu said the sentence would run concurrently.
THEWILL reliably gathered that before Uche’s arrest, he had being parading himself as a serving lieutenant around the commercial city of Aba, defrauding people.
However, luck ran against him when he put a call to Aba Area Commander, Rabiu Dayi, instructing him to order the Ndiegoro DPO to release a bus belonging to his brother which was in the custody of Ndiegoro Police Station.
Unfortunately when the said bus was brought to the Aba Area Command at the instance of Dayi, it was learnt from the man Uche was a fake soldier who was using a fake ID card to extort money from the unsuspecting members of the public.
He was subsequently arrested leading to police investigation about his true identity and subsequent arraignment for prosecution after the military authority in Abia declared him an impersonator.
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