5 suspects arrested by Benue LGA chairman
WHEN trains were running and ferrying passengers and goods across the area on a daily basis, there was no report of thieves or vandals tampering with the facilities of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC.
Everything was fine and the rail lines, tracks and coaches were never attractive to petty thieves or established criminals who lay ambush for anything useful hidden away from the public glare.
But, since the trains stopped running and the vast array of supporting facilities strewn along the thick and isolated forests spanning thousands of kilometres, they have suddenly become the target of criminals, vandals and gangs whose main focus is to vandalise the expensive structures and facilities and dispose of them at cheap rates and smile to the bank at the expense of the society.
And, they have largely succeeded in having their way and since the NRC stopped providing train services in many of the states in the North Central axis of Nigeria and left the huge facilities lying waste across the length and breadth of the area at the mercy of the hoodlums.
That is the pathetic story of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, a state-owned enterprise that in no small measure impacted the economic life of Benue State regarded as the 'food basket of the nation' and other states which produce agricultural and mineral products and used to depend heavily on train services for the movement of goods and passengers to other parts of the country in the past.
Regrettably, the fine history of the NRC and the success stories it recorded have been confined to the dustbin of history with its multi-billion Naira facilities scattered in the nooks and crannies of the state and its neighbours, providing enough materials for criminals to loot with impunity. There is no restraint of any kind and there is no limit to what the criminals can and cannot take from the NRC.
As a result of the freedom availed the vandals with the absence of any form of security for the NRC facilities, thousands of tonnes of NRC rails and rail slippers of the main and loop lines of the Corporation in several communities have been vandalized and looted away by vandals without any form of challenge from any quarters.
Large portions of the several kilometers of the rail lines that run through Benue communities have been dug out and removed by the syndicate who invade communities where the lines are laid, armed with sophisticated weapons.
Some of the communities and areas where these tracks have been vandalized include Makurdi general area by the old River Benue Bridge, Adeke community in the outskirts of Makurdi Town, several communities on the stretch of Gwer West Local Government Area down to Taraku axis in Gwer East LGA as well as communities on the Otukpo-Ado LGAs stretch among others.
The criminal gangs dismantling and looting the rail facilities are not only brutal but are well armed to unleash attacks on anyone or group that dares to challenge them while carrying out their nef, where these organized criminal gangs confronted anyone who stood on their way.
Though most officials of the NRC were unwilling to speak on the matter, claiming they were not authorised to do so, one of the personnel who volunteered information on the issue on condition of anonymity expressed despair over the wanton looting of expensive railway materials worth billions of Naira without any response from any quarters.
"The situation we have found ourselves in the railways is a sad one. We actually cannot understand why people will resort to vandalising our national assets like the rail track without considering the implication of what they are doing.
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"It goes to tell you the level people can go to make money even to the detriment of the lives of others because we heard that the vandals sell a trailer load of the materials for about N4 million to people who buy scrap metals.
"And the people who do this are like a syndicate who are well armed and always ready to deal ruthlessly with anyone who comes on their way or encounters them while carrying out their operation in the bushes.
"Only recently some of our staff who were manning some of the train stations in isolated communities were transferred out of such places when it was discovered that their safety could no longer be guaranteed in such areas because of the activities of the vandals who see them as threat to their operation.
"Initially people who remove the tracks used to come from outside with the connivance of some persons within the communities where such is happening but we recently discovered that criminally-minded youths in these communities have taken over. They are the ones vandalising the tracks and selling them to scrap metal buyers; and they go into the bushes bearing arms to attack anyone who dares them. We had a case like that in a community just after Makurdi recently.
"But despite their audacity, security agencies have been making arrests and in some instances, we have had community members overpowering and arresting them with their vehicles and canoes in some cases," he said.
The Chairman of Ado Local Government Area, Chief James Oche, confirmed that he had apprehended some youths in his domain who took to vandalising rail tracks laid between Otukpo and Ado LGA and described the level of destruction as heartbreaking and unimaginable.
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The Chairman said: "We received intelligence about the syndicate and in collaboration with relevant security agencies, we painstakingly uncovered them and their operational base. They engage in vandalisation and sale of public installations like the railway tracks, clips, electrical installations, cross bars, wires and poles belonging to the railways which they sell for as much as N4 million per truckload.
"We arrested five of their kingpins and their accomplices and they are currently helping the police in their investigation, while those at large are being pursued for possible arrests."
The Chairman said he also ordered the closure of the hotel in the area which was identified as the operational base of the syndicate while investigation into the matter was ongoing.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Catherine Anene, disclosed that the Police had been making progress with the arrest of members of the syndicate who were mostly stealing rail facilities in mostly from isolated communities at night.
"We are intensifying our investigations and also carrying out arrests; and all the suspects we caught have been charged to court, Anene, a Superintendent of police," she said.
