Police arrest fake soldier, doctor in Akwa Ibom

The police in Akwa Ibom State have arrested two male suspects for impersonation

The police spokesperson in the state, Odiko MacDon, who disclosed this in a statement on Friday, said one of the suspects, Akpan Essien, was arrested on November 16 for impersonating a soldier, while Samuel Jumbo was arrested for falsely claiming to be a medical doctor.

An army uniform, jack-knives, walkie talkie, a Toyota vehicle and other items were recovered from Mr Essien’s house during a search by the police, Mr MacDon, a superintendent of police, said.

Mr Essien, according to the police statement, confessed to using the army uniforms to deceive, intimidate and commit heinous crimes within Uyo, the state capital.

The other suspect, Mr Jumbo, allegedly swindled his mother for years under the pretext of studying medicine in the University of Lagos.

He was reportedly falsely parading himself as a medical doctor with the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), the police said.

“During interrogation, the suspect confessed to the crime and stated that he is not a medical doctor as claimed. In his confessional statement, he stated that in 2015, he told his mother that he had gotten admission into the University of Lagos to study medicine, since then, he has collected various sums of money from her.

“He further stated that on 3/11/2021, he told his mother that he was going for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) at Rivers State and collected N200,000.00 for accommodation from her after she had bought a lot of household items for him,” Mr MacDon said.

The police spokesperson said Mr Jumbo squandered the money and the items in Uyo and deceived unsuspecting members of the police that he was a medical doctor.

“To convince the public, he will dress up or carry his lab coat, use a bolt cab to UUTH Abak Road, after loitering around for a while, he goes back to his hotel and look for unsuspecting members of the public to defraud,” Mr MacDon said.

The suspects would be charged to court at the end of investigation, he said.