The Federal Road Safety Corps, Onitsha Unit Command, has arrested a 60-year-old bus driver, Mr. Benedict Oputa, for allegedly impersonating a naval officer.
Oputa was arrested in Onitsha on his way from Asaba on Sunday.
The FRSC Unit Commander in Onitsha, Mr. Paulinus Akpotobo, said the suspect had been indulging in the act since 2010.
He said Oputa, whose vehicle plied the Asaba-Onitsha route, had, each time he was stopped, claimed to be a naval officer.
“Today (Sunday), an officer who had accosted him several times in Asaba, flagged him down and as usual, he brandished his fake naval identity card.
“On further interrogation, he claimed that he was a master warrant officer, a designation that was strange to the Navy. He could not mention the name of his commander,” he said.
Oputa, a father of four, said he had been into transport business for over two decades.
He said, “These people (FRSC) and the police always disturb us to give them N50 each time we ply this road. That was why I used the naval identity card as a pass. Although I am not a naval officer, I have worked as a civilian maintaining electrical installations at the Navy Barracks in Lagos.”
PUNCH.
