Twelve suspected railway vandals have been arrested by the Special Intelligence Squad of the Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
During the arrest, two trucks conveying large quantities of stolen railway sleepers were also impounded.
National spokesperson for the Corps, Olusola Odumosu made the disclosure in a statement on Sunday, July 24.
He said the arrests were made during three separate operations by the Commandant General’s Special Intelligence Squad (CG’s SIS) at Kafanchan-Kwoi Road, Jama’a Local Council of Kaduna State, and Agwan-Kuje village, Kadarko area in Keana Local Council of Nasarawa State, as well as at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camp, Keffi- Abuja Expressway.
He said: “Following intelligence report, the first five arrests were made when suspected vandals were loading the vandalised and stolen railway sleepers at a bush in Nasarawa.
“A long open-body Man Diesel trailer already loaded with over 500 pieces of the vandalised railway sleepers, alleged to be owned by the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) was also concealed under sacks of groundnut dust.”
He added: “In another operation at NYSC orientation camp, Keffi-Abuja Expressway, three suspected vandals were also arrested while conveying large quantities of vandalised railway sleepers concealed with rice chaff inside a J5 Boxer Bus.
“Another four vandals were arrested by the CG’s SIS while loading railway sleepers into an already filled illegal warehouse in Kaduna.
“Acting on a tip-off, the squad immediately swung into action and succeeded in intercepting one white long open-body truck fully loaded with large quantities of vandalised rail track irons, covered with a blue trampoline.
“All the arrested suspects and the exhibits are subject to a preliminary investigation by the Corps, which will help to make further arrests and subsequent prosecution to reduce the rate of critical infrastructural vandalism in the affected territories.”
Meanwhile, the agency has called on citizens to continually provide credible and useful information that would help in the arrest of vandals and criminals nationwide.