By Evelyn Usman
LAGOS—Naval officers attached to the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base, FOB, Badagry, Lagos State, have uncovered an illegal training camp at Oto-Awori, Ijanikin, along Lagos-Badagry Expressway, used by a syndicate to train prospective applicants into the Nigerian Navy.

Arrested were four management staff of a maritime agency, who have been parading themselves as Naval officers, and 12 recruits, who claimed to have paid between N50,000 and N250,000 as admission fees into the Navy.

Vanguard gathered that one of the suspects, Lukemon Bello, who was clad in Navy uniform with the rank of a Master Warrant Officer, was accosted by soldiers at Irekiti area of Badagry, last Tuesday, who contacted FOB only to discover that he was not a Naval personnel.

Training camp

Preliminary investigation by the FOB Commander, Commodore Simon Dogo, led to the discovery of the illegal training camp, where some Nigerians, among who were three ladies, were undergoing training.

The trainees, who were discovered to have come from different parts of the country, said they paid N30,000 for the training after an earlier payment of N150,000 as recruitment fees into the Nigerian Navy.

While some of them claimed to have stumbled on the notice of recruitment into the Nigerian Navy on the internet, others said they were contacted by their relatives and friends.

Briefing journalists while handing the suspects over to the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, the Commander, NNS Beecroft, Commodore Morris Eno, said: “The illegal camp has about 35 trainees and four staff.

“However, we have only four staff and 12 of the trainees with us, while 23 other trainees were reported to be on Christmas break and yet to resume. It is instructive to note that these illegal maritime agencies have been dissolved and proscribed through the Federal Government official gazette Number 58, Volume 100, in 2013.”

Some staff and students of the ‘Naval college.’

Trainees’ stories

Shortly before they were handed over to the NSCDC, one of the trainees, Musa Nasiri, a Banking and Finance graduate of the Federal Polytechnic, Kaura Namoda, Zamfara State, said he paid N150,000 as admission fee into the Navy.

“I have always wanted to be a Military man. In 2014, I applied for the Nigerian Air Force but was not admitted. One Peter told me that he had a friend who could help me into the Nigerian Navy and requested for N150,000.

“Later, I received a call that I have been admitted and must come for three-month training in Lagos. But on getting here, I discovered the whole thing had nothing to do with the Navy and it was too late to turn back.”

Another trainee, Christopher Ezekiel, who came from Ondo State, said he paid N120,000.

He said: “It was when we got here that we were told it was Merchant Navy. They assured that the formation will be established next month, as it was being rectified by the National Assembly. Already, I have told my parents back home that I am a Naval personnel.”

On his part, Olowokere said: “When my secondary school friend, Abiodun, told me to raise N100,000 for recruitment into the Navy, I saw it as an opportunity to get a job that would enable me further my education.

“I did not know it was all lies. The most painful aspect is that I borrowed the money.”

Other trainees came from Taraba, Cross River, Imo, Ogun, Kwara, Osun and Lagos states.