A 25-year-old man who has been parading himself as a soldier in Ebonyi state, has been arrested by the police in the State, on Tuesday, January 15, 2019.
The suspect identified as Moris Mbam, who hails from the Okpuitim community in the Izzi Local Government Area of the state, had earlier been declared wanted by the police since December 25, 2018.
The police discovered the suspect after he is alleged to have held occupants of a residential building in Onu-Ebonyi, in Abakakili, hostage for over two hours.
While speaking with Journalists on the success of the command in clamping down on crime in the state before, during and after the Christmas and New Year celebrations, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Muhammed Mustafa, noted that Mbam was arrested at a commercial bank in Enugu, while he was trying to withdraw some money, by police operatives attached to the Central Police Station, Abakaliki.
Mustafa stated, “He has been taking people hostage and as he went about intimidating people and claiming that he was a soldier, the police got wind of his activities and our men swung into action and got him arrested.
“And before his arrest, he had been on our wanted list and he was arrested on January 11, 2019. He had for long been parading himself as a soldier before the operatives of the Nigeria Police from the ‘A’ Division (i.e. Central Police Station Abakaliki) arrested him.”
He also said the suspect was notorious for extortion of money and goods from innocent citizens while pretending to be an officer of the Nigerian Army.
Mustafa added that the suspect held occupants of a residential block hostage in Onu-Ebonyi and extorted N40,000 and one Tecno KA7 Spark phone from them on December 25, 2018.
He however said that the phone had since been recovered.
The suspect has also confessed to the crime, telling journalists that he sold the phone N10,000, but was paid him N7,000 even though he had told the buyer he was a soldier in hopes that he would get the remaining sum on time.
