A joint military task force, comprising the Army, the Navy, State Security Services, police and the Civil Defence last week sealed up an illegal Naval seafarers’ training school at Idah in Kogi State.
The task force recovered various military hardware including a pump action gun and hundreds of cartridges as well as documents during the raid from the school, which was said to have commenced operation last year.
The task force led by the Naval Commander, NNS Lugard, Lokoja, Commodore Mohammed Shiwa, said there was only one recognised Nigerian Navy seafarers’ training school in Oron, Akwa Ibom State. He stated that the one at Idah was illegal.
According to Shiwa, the school was charging about N30,000 for collection of form and N265,000 as school fees.
It was however gathered that about 5,000 students were said to have so far enrolled in the school, which commenced operation in 2013.
The naval commander stated that the operators of the institution would be handed over to the police for prosecution, while the student trainees would be released to go back to their various states.
But in an interview with journalists in Lokoja, one of the officers of the school who identified himself as Stanley Edeke, said the school was recognised by the government.
He argued that the passage of the bill for the final approval of the school was in its second reading before the National Assembly.
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