………….Theft driven by lucrative scrap market – Police
…………It’s a worrisome menace, says FCTA
BY TEDDY NWANUNOBI, NGOZI A. NWANKWO, DAVID ADUGE-ANI AND EMMANUEL OLUKOTUN
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is a beautiful city within the North Central part of Nigeria. It was formed in 1976 from parts of old Kaduna, Kwara, Niger, and Plateau states. But the bulk of the landmass is carved out of Niger State. The FCT includes the six area councils of Abuja Municipal, Abaji, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje, and Kwali – each with their own towns, such as Bwari, Gwagwalada, and Kuje, which form the greater metropolitan area, but not districts within the city of Abuja.
Despite the presence of world-class infrastructure that beautify Abuja, scavengers, popularly known as ‘Baban Bola’ constantly destroy the beauty of the city and endanger the lives of its residents by stealing manhole covers, often from roads or walkways, which they sell to metal scrap dealers for peanuts in most cases. Currently, there are close to 800 manholes that are not covered in the FCT. The removal of manhole covers not only damages critical public infrastructure, but also creates dangerous situations for pedestrians and drivers, potentially causing accidents and injuries.
An expert in a construction company, Mr. John Ogburu, said people can easily fall into open manholes, leading to injuries ranging from fractures to more severe trauma.
“The more challenging situation in Nigeria is the activities of scavengers, popularly known as ‘Mai Bola’, who vandalise the covers for scrap metals, ending up damaging them and leaving them uncovered.
“Manhole covers, particularly for scrap metal, can create dangerous situations. Also, manholes can be a hazard during heavy rains, especially in areas with inadequate drainage,” he said.
When the New National Star spoke to residents to ascertain their views on the risks associated with manholes, a staff of the Court of Appeal, Kubwa branch, Henry Idoko, called on the relevant authority to step up measures to ensure minimal risks to life.
“I have not been a victim, nor any of my relatives, but we hear many stories of people falling inside with serious injuries, and many have reported discovering dead bodies inside manholes. This has raised concerns because one can’t tell if those bodies were victims of manhole accidents or people murdered and dumped inside. The major thing to be done is to ensure that these manholes are properly covered,” he said.
A boutique owner in Wuse, Zone 3, Grace Sandra, said, “I don’t even see the need for all these holes everywhere. I don’t know the meaning, but I have witnessed a POS operator who stepped on a half-covered hole. She stumbled and fell inside. It took the grace of God when people quickly came to her help. I think the FCT Environmental Department should create more awareness of the use of all these manholes and how people should stay safe from them.”
Clement Agene linked the risks to quackery, saying that some manhole covers were constructed with inferior materials that can easily be vandalised.
“I was traumatised when I saw a white woman who just alighted from a taxi and, the moment she stepped on a manhole, she slipped inside… Since then, I became self-aware of the danger of walking on them. Either they are not well covered by the construction companies or they are constructed unprofessionally. Nigerians should be aware of this danger and avoid walking on them, and Nigeria should contract experts to handle critical infrastructure like this,” he said.
A caregiver who runs a nursery and primary school in Kubwa, Deborah Ojochile, narrated how her car got stuck in one of the open manholes in her area.
“I was in reverse, after picking a few items needed in my school from a shop one afternoon. I didn’t know there was an open manhole behind me, even though it was daytime. All I heard was a loud noise, and the rear of my car had gone down. It was when I got out of the car to inspect it that I found my rear-back tyre in the hole. It was not funny,” she said.
The experience of a commercial cyclist in the Gwarinpa area of the FCT, Tanko Balarebe, left him terrified.
“When I dropped my passenger off, I then wanted to go and eat, because it was around 7 o’clock in the evening. I just turned left at one junction, and before I knew it, I fell inside the hole. Only God saved me because I wasn’t speeding. If not, it would have been more dangerous. My front tyre got badly damaged, and I couldn’t work for two days because I needed to change the tyre,” he said.
For young Fortune, he and his friends were playing football on a Saturday on the quiet street of their neighborhood in Wuse Zone 5. One of the boys hit the ball hard, and it went straight into an open manhole at the end of the street. That was the end of the fun that day.
“I wanted my ball back, but I couldn’t enter the hole,” he stated, adding that his ball was never retrieved.
The FCT administration and security agencies are actively working to address the issue of manhole cover theft, with efforts including increased surveillance, arrests of suspects, and public awareness campaigns.
Recently, the FCT Police Command said it had recovered a total of 125 stolen manholes from vandals destroying public infrastructure in the nation’s capital, reaffirming its commitment to cracking down on criminals targeting public infrastructure.
According to the Command, the latest recovery was made recently during intelligence-led operations in the Dei-Dei area, where officers discovered the stolen items hidden in a pit.
“The theft of manhole covers is largely driven by the lucrative market for scrap metals. The ease with which these covers are removed and sold fuels the crime,” the spokesperson for the Command, Josephine Adeh, said.
The Acting Director of the Department of Facilities Maintenance and Management, Abuja Metropolitan Council (AMMC), Shaba Goshi, explained the danger behind stolen manholes.
According to him, the current scale of the theft of manhole covers on the city’s infrastructure and public safety is very high and has been sustained by vandals for so long despite the efforts of security operatives to curb the menace.
“The impact is worrisome, especially on vehicular and human traffic, as most of the manholes have a depth of no less than three metres and a minimum diameter of 600mm, which might result in death traps and cause accidents on our roads,” Goshi said.
Goshi also spoke on the environmental consequences of uncovered manholes.
“The manhole and gully pots act as inspection chambers for storm water flows, and once they are blocked due to not being covered, the result is that every other drainage using that route cannot discharge water as it should, leading to stagnation and overflow with a resultant effect of breeding grounds for mosquitoes and flooding,” he stated.
On the ongoing efforts adopted by the FCTA through AMMC, Goshi said that to curb the menace and maintain Abuja’s infrastructure, there is a need for the sensitisation of the public to treat the infrastructure provided in their domain as their personal property by reporting any vandalism to the appropriate authorities.
The ease with which criminals can steal manhole covers and the high value placed on scrap materials has made the theft a lucrative enterprise. But the problem persists, highlighting the need for a multi-faceted approach involving community participation, improved security measures, and long-term solutions to deter theft and ensure public safety.
Goshi hinted that AMMC is working closely with the manufacturers of manhole and gully pot covers to brand all the products and to provide anti-theft features that will make the removal of these covers difficult.
An engineer, Bassey Peter, suggested that welding the irons will make manholes permanent and difficult for thieves.
“It is important to know that alternative coverings might not be possible, because it must always be iron. But this is my take on it… if you seal it up immediately and weld it solidly, so that it will not be easy for anybody who is planning to remove it for sale. You would need a standby generator and a filing machine, and using them will make noise that will attract people to see what’s happening.
“The truth is that you can’t use brick, because a few runs over it will break it. There is no amount of brick that won’t break. But the welding of the iron will make it permanent. It should be done in such a way that it can be locked up. That is the only solution,” he said.
A welder, Jude Ndubuisi, insisted that it is the fault of those who fixed the manholes that makes them easy to steal.
“It has to be that iron, or it can be cast – a kind of iron chamber, where the iron is placed below before the casting is done. The ‘Baban Bola’ don’t usually do what will take their time. They just go and pull out the iron from the holes and leave. They don’t like doing things that will waste their time. Otherwise, they would be going around breaking people’s burglaries and lintels and toilet chambers. What they usually do is that, if they discover that something is made of only iron, they will look for a way to come and carry it.
“The manhole is pullable, especially those in town. You can pull it. It is the fault of those who fixed them. You know, in the Western world, they don’t remove it. But they remove it in Nigeria. If those that fixed the manholes had fixed them well, it wouldn’t be easy for the ‘Baban Bola’ to pick up those things,” he maintained.
Ndubuisi advised on what should be done to protect the manholes from being stolen.
“I advise that manholes should be locked. In case you don’t know, I’m a welder. If I want to do such a thing for you to lock it, I will create it for you. But if I don’t want you to lock it, I will do it in such a way that it will use a bolt and nut, so that you can tighten it. Once you tighten it, they will not know how to do it. Only you who put it will know how to open it. In the event of an amendment, you will fix the bolt and nut inside the casting,” he said.
Ndubuisi also addressed the possibility of welders working with ‘Baban Bolas’.
“No, no, no. They don’t do that with welders because they know that if they try it, they will be exposed. They don’t even want you to know who carried it. No ‘Baban Bola’ will want you to know that he carried anything. No ‘Baban Bola’ will go to the welder to ask him to come and create a nut that will help to remove any iron.
“The worth of what you are to remove cannot give you that N200,000. They can’t get the number of manholes that will give them up to that amount that they will give me. Moreover, mind you, they don’t like to waste money. They don’t even think of the worth of what they are removing. They can remove something worth N200,000 and sell it for N5,000. It is none of their business. That is their problem. If they are selling them for N5,000, when will they recover the N200,000 they gave to me? So, they don’t think the way you think. You are thinking as a businessman. But they are not thinking as businessmen. They are thinking of thieves. That is the difference. Had it been that they were removing those things to go and remodel them at their shops, that would be different. But they remove them and sell them for whatever price.
“Before they pick anything to steal, they would have monitored it for some time – they will come the first day, the second day, the third day… They can then carry it on the third or fourth day. If it is easy to break and steal, they would have been breaking things – even at the sites. But they don’t want anything that will attract noise,” he added.