The Nigeria Navy Ship, NNS Delta, has dismissed three of its personnel and sentenced them to five months imprisonment over alleged theft of equipment belonging to ex-freedom fighter, High Chief Oweizide Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo.
The Commander of the Nigeria Navy Ship, NNS Delta in Warri, Commodore Ibrahim Dewu disclosed this in a chat with newsmen shortly after de-kitting the Naval personnel.
The dismissed Naval personnel include: Petty Officer Ekong Samuel, Leading Seaman Elijah Sagwada and Seaman Usman Shuaibu.
The dismissed Naval personnel were on guard duty where they were arrested in June this year over alleged theft of properties confiscated at a Ship Yard in Warri.
The Navy Court Martial has handed the dismissed Naval personnel over to the Nigerian Prisons Service, Okere, Warri for the continuation of their jail term.
The Commander NNS Delta, Commodore Ibrahim Dewu said the Nigerian Navy will not condone acts of indiscipline, neither will it protect any of its officers or rating found wanting.
He noted that the dismissal and sentencing of the erring personnel was done in accordance with standard Navy rules, stressing that, they were not summarily.
Dewu explained that they were given fair hearing, allowed to come with their counsels and were only dismissed and sentenced after the Court martial was satisfied that they were guilty.
“Sometimes in June, some of our personnel that were to Mieka Jetty, keeping duty, were caught stealing some of the equipment in that jetty. When the report was made to the base and they were arrested, both them and the civilians that were involved.
“A thorough investigation was carried out, a court martial was recommended after the investigation and these three personnel from NNS Delta were court martialed. What you see this morning is the sentence that was given after the court martial. We are carrying out the naval procedure for a dismissal and we are going to send them to prison after the dismissal.
“They were dismissed first, after which they were de-kitted and now they are going to serve five months jail term in prison. So what we did this morning was to de-kit them and then hand them over to the prison service, to continue their jail term.
“I want to make this statement clear that the Nigerian Navy has never and will never condone any case of indiscipline, especially issues that will bring disrepute to the service. We do not cover any of our personnel that is caught involved in such cases. That is why today we have dismissed them and then we are handing them over the prison to serve their jail term,” he said.
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