By Harris Emmanuel

UYO—A 56-year-old dismissed Superintendent of Police; Mr Kingsely Udoyen, arrested for parading himself as an Assistant Commissioner Police, said he did so to make ends meet.

The suspect, who was paraded with 34 suspected criminals, narrated that he was dismissed from the Force in 2007 for engaging in illegal duty, stating that he has been using the position to assist dealers to ferry cars from the Benin Republic for a fee into Lagos before luck ran out of him.

‘’I was in the Police and was dismissed in 2007 over illegal duty. I left Lagos where I served at Alagbon to Calabar in 2008 and met Glory Etim, my girlfriend, who bought the uniforms for me. I know what I was doing was against the law’’, he said.

However, the Commissioner of Police, Musa Kimo, who paraded the suspects before newsmen at the Ikot Akpan-Abia, headquarters of the Command, said the fake senior police officer was never in the service of the Police, but only used it to defraud and threatened unsuspecting members of the public.

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He said a search in his house led to the discovery of one English pistol without magazine and ammunition, portraits of Chief Superintendent of Police and Assistant Commissioner of Police, three pairs of uniform, belt, fake identification card and other documents.

He added that a serving female officer, who was also paraded, assisted the fake officer to procure uniforms and other paraphernalia.

CP Kimo listed the crimes committed by the suspects to include murder, kidnapping, child stealing, defilement, stealing, vandalism and armed robbery, among others, adding that a total of 213 suspects were arrested during the period under review, while 111 were charged to court, the Command secured 18 convictions.