Five suspected railway track and slippers vandals and thieves are cooling their heels with the police in Niger State, North-Central Nigeria.
Commissioner of Police, Shawulu Danmamman, while parading the five suspects and 10 others for various crimes at the Command headquarters, warned that the state will not be used as a transit route for criminals.
At a time the country is battling to put rail transportation system in order, for effective movement of goods and services, men of the underworld have continued to vandalise the national assets.
In Minna, the Niger State capital, five suspected vandals and thieves have been intercepted by the military, and handed over to the police, while conveying a trailer load of items to Sarkin-Pawa, via Kaduna Road.
According to the Police Commissioner, upon interrogation, one of the suspects, Adekunle Saheed, confessed that one Engineer Ali, his boss, detailed him through a phone call to hire a truck and convey the railway infrastructure from Katarma village, in Kaduna State to Kwara. He added that efforts are ongoing to arrest the said Engineer Ali.
The case is being investigated by the State Criminal Investigation Department and he warns would-be criminals to stay away from Niger State as an escape route, or continue to meet their waterloo.
Two of the five suspects, 44-year-old Adekunle Saheed and 30-year-old Saifullahi Umar, both from Oyo and Katsina States, have denied knowledge of the content of the trailer, but confessed to have been intercepted by the military, who handed them over to the police.
Umar further added that they were escorted with the consignment by some armed members of the vigilante before the military intercepted them.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
