Navy jails three ratings for theft

•Convicts dismissed

The Navy has dismissed three of its personnel, who were arrested in June for stealing equipment stored at Mieka Jetty in Warri, Delta State, where they were on guard duty.

The personnel, Petty Officer Ekong Samuel, Leading Seaman Elijah Sagwada and Seaman Usman Shuaibu, were handed over to the Nigerian Prisons Service, Okere, Warri, to continue a five-month jail term given them by the naval court martial, which tried them in Warri.

Addressing reporters after the de-kitting of the dismissed ratings at the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta in Warri, the Commander of the NNS Delta, Commodore Ibrahim Dewu, said the Navy would not condone indiscipline; neither would it protect any personnel found wanting.

Dewu, who explained that the dismissal and sentencing of the erring personnel were done in accordance with the naval rules, said they were not summarily tried.

He added that they were given fair hearing, allowed to come with their counsel and were dismissed and sentenced after the court martial was satisfied that they were guilty.

“Sometime in June, some of our personnel keeping duty at Mieka Jetty were caught stealing equipment. When the incident was reported at the base, they were arrested.

“An investigation was carried out. A court martial was recommended after the investigation and these three personnel from NNS Delta were court-martialled. What you see this morning is the sentence 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. So what we did this morning was to dekit 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 indiscipline, especially issues that will bring disrepute to the service. We do not cover any of our personnel caught involved in such cases. This is why today we have dismissed them. We are handing them over to the prison to serve their jail terms,” Dewu said.