The Police Command in Enugu has nabbed three suspects for vandalizing railway structures in the metropolis.
According to a police bulletin of Thursday, July 7, 2021, signed and issued by the PPRO Daniel Ndukwe, ASP, and made available on request, the command had pursuant to its operational strategies, including collaborative security operations, devised by the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State Command, Mr Mohammed Ndatsu Aliyu, to actualize mandates of Operation Restore Peace in the State, had arrested 3 male suspects for their involvement in railway tracks and sleepers vandalism with their operational lorries and large pieces of the vandalized items recovered.
According to the police bulletin, “one Chukwuma Okoye aged 56 and Oluchukwu Igboke aged 25, both of Anambra State, were intercepted and arrested on 02/07/2021 at about 0140hrs, by a Joint Security patrol team, headed by the Officer-in-Charge of the Command’s Anti-Kidnapping Squad, at Emene Enugu, along Enugu/Abakaliki highway.”
The PPRO disclosed that upon searches conducted on 2 Mercedes trucks with registration numbers: AWK 296 YX and UWN 471 ZX, the suspects were respectively driving, the Operatives uncovered large pieces of vandalized railway tracks and sleepers, and both of them both confessed to be transporting the items from Ezza-Nkwubor, Emene to Anambra State.
The 2 lorries and the vandalized items, he explained, have been recovered.
Similarly, he announced also that “Police Operatives attached to the Command’s CP Monitoring Unit on 10/06/2021, arrested one Boniface Eze aged 37, of Anambra State and recovered a Mercedes 911 lorry with registration number: XC 360 UWN loaded with vandalized railway tracks and sleepers at Ezza-Nkwubor, Emene, Enugu.”
Ndukwe stated that the said arrest was due to the Operatives’ swift response to credible information, alleging that some persons vandalized the said railway tracks and sleepers, loaded same and were about to transport them to an unknown location. The suspect and driver of the said lorry had reportedly also confessed to be transporting the vandalized items to Anambra State.
Meanwhile, a serious manhunt has been launched to arrest accomplices of the crime, with the view to charging them to court once the investigation is concluded.
The Commissioner, Alyiu while frowning at the act of criminal vandalism of critical national infrastructures, such as railways, that are meant for the public good, has warned unrepentant criminal elements to steer clear of such critical public assets in the State or be ready to face the full weight of the law even as he solicited citizen support in reporting crimes and urged them to remain vigilant and law-abiding.