The Nigerian Army has arrested a lance corporal for attempting to steal a military vehicle stationed at Mogadishu Cantonment, popularly known as Abacha Barracks, in Abuja, Peoples Gazette can report.

Military sources told the Gazette on Tuesday that the soldier, identified simply as Shehu and attached to Defence Headquarters, had sought to make away with the automobile parked at the barracks’ parade ground after gaining access to the key press, but was accosted and taken into custody on Saturday afternoon.

Shehu, who is currently being held by military police, had concluded arrangements to sell-off the vehicle to a ready buyer, our sources said, citing preliminary investigations.

Lamenting the ‘proliferation of criminals into the Nigerian Army,’ military authorities have directed all units and formations to intensify measures in safeguarding their base, while taking proper charge of their personnel.

“The key press should equally be out of bounds to all who have no business with military vehicles,” our sources cited an internal army directive to top officials.

Troops of the Nigerian Army have been spotlighted in recent times for various forms of felonies and misdemeanors.

A video, which went viral in August 2019 had captured the unwarranted killing of three policemen and a civilian by soldiers, who opened fire on a vehicle transporting a notorious kidnapper, Hamisu Bala Wadume, to the Command Headquarters in Jalingo after he was arrested by the slain cops.