13 persons arrested for vandalising, stealing Abuja rail equipment

13 persons arrested for vandalising, stealing Abuja rail equipment

 

Thirteen people have been arrested in Abuja over vandalisation of armoured cables and other railway equipment.

About 10 of the suspects were said to be casual workers engaged by a Chinese company working on the railway, while three others were buyers of the stolen equipment.

They were arrested by a private guard company in charge of protecting the Abuja mass transit rail, Safeguard Security and Protection Company.

The suspects were on Friday in Abuja by the Managing Director and Chief Executive of the company, Segun Adekola, in the presence of some officials of the Federal Capital Territory FCT Transport Secretariat.

Adekola said his company had arrested over 100 suspected vandals over the years.

He however lamented that some of those arrested in the past were released on bail.

He added that some of them went back to the crime for which they were initially arrested.

He said, “We have been working with relevant stakeholders in the discharge of our duties and acting on a rip-off, we were able to effect the arrest of these people and we are ready to do more.”

Adekola said the suspects would be handed over to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps NSCDC for further profiling and prosecution.

Director of Operations at the firm, James Chukwu, said operatives of the company had gone a step further in arresting buyers of stolen rail components.

He said, “We are the outsourced security company charged with the responsibility of protecting Abuja railway line. We cover several railway stations and we also cover the railway tracks to avoid the issue of vandalism of materials.”

He said the Chinese company had been contacted and were cooperating with investigations.