Navy seals illegal maritime academy in Akwa Ibom, arrests proprietor, teachers

An illegal maritime institution in Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom was sealed on Friday by Nigerian Navy Ship Jubilee of Ikot Abasi. The school proprietor, Mr Adams Pius, was also arrested along with three other persons.

Activities at the institution, Punch reports, had been stopped in 2013, but was allegedly resumed in 2016.

The circumstances surrounding the return of activities at the school were described as “unwholesome strategies to defraud innocent Nigerian youths” who were in need of admission into the higher institution.

Captain Suleiman Ibrahim, the Executive officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship Jubilee, said the institution and others were denounced by the former President Goodluck Jonathan after they found out that the institutions did not have materials capable of training a navy.

He said, “This year, we received an intelligence report that the same school resumed training of young Nigerians in maritime studies in spite of the fact that there is no authority for them to do so.”

Ibrahim further added that his team was going to find out from the apprehended persons about the authority they got in reopening the school.

“This was what led to our raiding of this place; we are shutting it down once more. We will also find out from the proprietor what authority he has to continue training young innocent Nigerians when he fully knows that the school does not have the capacity for this kind of training,” Ibrahim said.

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Pius, the 46-year-old proprietor of the institution, told newsmen that the students were admitted through Jamb and the programmes of the school were fully accredited.

“I have the accreditation certificate. As I am talking to you, the students passed through JAMB to gain admission into the academy. We don’t send text messages to students through fraudulent means as alleged,” Pius said.

The four arrested suspects and 19 students had been handed over to the Divisional Police Officer of the area to take charge of the case.