The Nigerian Navy on Friday said it has uncovered a fake and illegal naval training school in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The navy said it arrested 6 operators and 4 trainers of the illegal outfit.

It was learnt that the suspects collected between N100,000 and N300,000 as registration form.

Commander of the Nigerian Navy Ship Jubilee, Calabar, Commodore Saidu Garba said the illegal training school was Nigerian Merchant Navy Coastal Defence Force.

He said the operators of the school were collecting huge money from the public and making them believe they could be recruited into the Nigerian Navy.

Garba said, “On January 9, 2017, during a routine patrol, troops of NNS Jubilee came across a sign post bearing the name, Nigerian Merchant Navy Coastal Defence Force, situated in Wiiyaakara Coomunity in Khana LGA.

“On further search, our patrol team found out that the illegal organisation used a Model Primary school in Wiiyaakara community as its training centre. This illegal organisation specializes on recruitment and training after collecting huge sums of money from unsuspecting members of the public through sell of forms and registration.

“They conduct training for youths and at the end of the training, send them out in the name of industrial attachment to so-called naval organisations. Sometimes, they even promised them that immediately they finish from the programme, they would automatically join the navy.”

He said items recovered from the suspects include military camouflage and a self-styled obstacle-crossing used by the military in training of personnel.

Azeez