The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps reported that it has detained four people and stopped a truck that was transporting significant quantities of vandalized rail rails cloaked in iron fragments.
The Commandant General’s Special Intelligence Squad of the NSCDC made the arrest, according to a statement signed and issued by Babawale Afolabi, the Corps Spokesperson, on Thursday.
The truck and the four suspects, according to Afolabi, were stopped on Monday at Sabon Pagi, Lafia, Nasarawa State, along the Lafia-Akwanga-Abuja expressway.
The four suspects have been detained, he continued, pending additional inquiries and actions.
“On August 14, 2023, around 10: 30 hrs., the CG’s Special Intelligence Squad, who are on specialized operation to checkmate malicious actions of rail line vandals, detained four suspected vandals who disguised themselves as scavengers,” the statement stated.
Later, it was found that the suspects had destroyed rail track irons and hid them within scrap iron items before loading the violated rail track irons into a truck that will transport them to the buyers.
The four accused vandals are identified as 27-year-old Anasi Ali and two other individuals. The truck is an articulated DAF lorry with the license plate BSA 899XA. Yusuf Idris, 25, Hafis Idris, 18, and Nasiru Abdullahi, 28, who served as an escort, are the other two.
“Items recovered from the vandals include a DAF truck, substantial quantities of offloaded scrap irons, and large numbers of vandalized railroad irons.”
According to the Corps, a preliminary investigation showed that the vandals loaded the rail truck with irons and slippers in Makurdi, Benue State, and concealed them inside scrap irons to make them appear as scraps before shipping the vandalized goods to an undisclosed iron and steel company in Ilorin, Kwara State, before they were stopped and arrested.
Ahmed Audi, the Commandant General of the NSCDC, has ordered a thorough inquiry, following which the suspects will face charges in court.
