Army nabs fake Brigadier General

The Deputy Director in the Public Relations department at the division, Colonel Texas Chukwu, told newsmen  that the two men were arrested on September 17 in Bauchi. He said during a search conducted at Aliyu’s house at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) quarters in Kaduna, army uniforms for the ranks of Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel and Brig-General were found.
According to the Army spokesman, Aliyu claimed that he got the uniforms from one Lance-Corporal Olajide Rotimi of the 1 Base Ordnance Depot in 2006. Investigations revealed that the said Olajida deserted the Nigerian Army in 2006. Chukwu added that Aliyu confessed that his reason for impersonating was to have easy access to people in positions of power to  help him secure contracts. He said he got high patronage and succeeded in securing contracts including the construction and renovation of the Adamawa State University, rehabilitation and renovation of generators for the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) head office in Abuja and another contract at the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in Abuja.
He said: “I have broken the law of the country. I was a friend to a military officer. When he left service, I decided to continue to use his name and uniforms to canvass for contracts. I have been doing this for the past six to seven years. I used to visit heads of establishments or DGs and offer gifts and later go back to canvass for contracts. I was arrested in my house in Bauchi and when I sighted military officers all over my house, I was holding a Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) card. I quickly broke the card and threw it into the toilet and flushed it.”  Both men were handed over to the police for further investigation and prosecution.