The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC)’s Commandant General’s Special Intelligence Squad (CG’s SIS) has stopped an articulated DAF truck that was carrying a significant amount of vandalized rail track iron cloaked in iron debris.
This information was revealed in a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by NSCDC spokesman Babawale Afolabi.
Four individuals, according to him, have been detained pending additional inquiries and possible legal action about the materials that have been stolen.
“On 14th of August, 2023, at about 1030hrs, the CG’s Special Intelligence Squad, who was on a specialized operation to checkmate nefarious activities of rail line vandals, arrested four suspected vandals who disguised as scavengers.
“It was later discovered that the suspects have vandalized rail track irons and concealed them inside scrap iron materials before loading the vandalized rail track irons into a truck that will convey them to the buyers,” Babawale said.
He said the truck and the four suspects were intercepted along the Lafia-Akwanga-Abuja expressway, Sabon Pagi, Lafia Nasarawa State on Monday.
The four suspected vandals are 27 years old Anasi Ali who is the driver of the truck. Others are Yusuf Idris, 25; Hafis Idris, 18; and Nasiru Abdullahi, 28 who served as an escort.
“Items recovered from the vandals are a DAF truck, large quantities of offloaded scrap irons, and large quantities of vandalized railways irons,” Babawale added.
The statement said preliminary investigation revealed that the rail track irons and sleepers were loaded in Makurdi, Benue State to an undisclosed iron and steel company in Ilorin, Kwara State before they were intercepted and arrested.