Enugu railway: Police arrest 14 vandals

THE Nigerian Railway Police Command, on Monday, paraded 14 suspects that specialise in railway property theft and vandalism in some parts of the Eastern zone of the establishment.

Parading the suspects before newsmen in Enugu, Area Commander in-charge of the Eastern District Police Area Command, Henry Njoku, said that the suspects include two policemen, who had been acting as an accomplice that provided shield for the hoodlums.

TribuneOnline learnt that the negative activities had led to the halting of operations of the Nigerian Railway in almost all its routes within the Eastern Corridor except for the Aba-PortHarcourt line.

Njoku said that the two policemen are currently going to face orderly room trial and if they are found wanting would be dismissed from service as well as charged to court as the other 12 suspects.

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He said that the feat was achieved by painstaking intelligence and investigation within the past two months, adding that most of the suspects were nabbed on Sept. 15 in the act between 12 midnight and 2 a.m.

According to the commander, the vandals were caught stealing heavy irons of brake system control, wagon parts, wagon wheels, clips of rail slippers, rail slippers, armoured railway doors, zinc sheet of railway stations, rail cables etc.

He explained that there exist heavy vandal activities within Isiagu-Izuakoli-Mbaeke-Umuhia sections as well as Emene-Ogui-Ogbete sections of the Eastern Corridors of the Nigerian Railway routes.

“We are strategising to ensure that we put a stop to these growing trend of sabotage to the economy of the nation and denying the people of these part of the country opportunity to enjoy train services.

“The property vandalised and stolen, including the ones recovered, will run into multi-millions of dollars,’’ he said.

The police recovered five tricycles, a jeep, two mini-buses and two trucks used for conveying the stolen items as well as four gas
cylinders and a very big cutter used directly for their operations.