Fourteen suspected rail track vandals have been arrested by the Railway Police Command of the Nigerian Police Force.
The suspects were arrested for their alleged involvement in rail tracks vandalisation, concealing stolen properties of Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC, armed robbery and criminal conspiracy across the nation in the month of April, 2022.
A case in point occured on 1st of April, 2022 when the Kafanchan Railway Police Division of the command, got a tip-off by a concerned citizen. A BUA Cement truck fully loaded with railway slippers was intercepted along Bankin-Kaninkon-Kogi.
Report says on the suspected vandals fled the scene on sigthing the Police in the process abandoning the truck.
Investigations however led to the arrest of Ahmed Tanko from Dangoma Village Jam‘A Local Government Area, Kaduna State who confessed to the crime, while the police are intensifying efforts to apprehend his accomplices who are still at large.
In a similar development, on 27th of April 2022, the Kafanchan divisional headquarters also apprehended six suspected vandals loading multiple rail steels into two trucks – one of the trucks belonging to Dangote Cement Company.
A serving soldier, Sergeant Sirajo Suileman of the Nigerian army central ammunition department, Kaduna, Idris Bawa, Idris Musa, Shamsu Abdulahi, Anthony Moses, and Yunana Gaius, were caught in the act in a bush near Camuru Station, Kachia, Local Government Area, Kaduna State.
Also in Kano, three suspects – Abdukarim Haruna, Hasssan Dahiru, Bashir Mumuhamed, were also apprehended by the Kano division of the Railway command, 51 railway slippers, 26 rail steels, and several quantities of destroyed rail iron rods and slippers were recovered from them.
Dugbe Railway Police Division, Ibadan, Oyo State, also arrested a Man O’ War staff identified as Azeez Wahab with a BAGCO bag containing 50 NRC tool bolts without a satisfactory account on how he found it.
The Offa division of the Railway Command in Kwara State also arrested one Ibukun of Railway Mechanical Department (Diesel Maintenance Section) for vandalism and stealing aluminum in one of the unused coaches within the train station premises; while the Minna divisional Headquarters also arrested one Aliyu for vandalising railwayclips in Minna, Niger State.
And in Ibadan the Oyo State Capital, the Bodija Divisional Headquarters of the Railway Command on the 6th of April, 2022 arrested a 20-year-old armed robbery suspect identified as Abdulahi Fatai aka ‘Akube’. Investigations revealed that the case is connected to that of another armed robbery suspect who was earlier arrested in December 2021 while going for an operation.
The Railway Police Command Headquarters, Commissioner of Police, CP Yetunde Longe who confirmed the arrests, said that the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Baba Alkali has zero tolerance to crime in the country and he will not stop the war against crime until all criminal elements are arrested and prosecuted.
CP Longe noted that some of the arrested suspects have been charged to court while investigations are also being intensified to arrest others at large.
