The Railway Police Command of the Nigeria Police Force has arrested 14 suspects, among them, a serving Sergeant in the Nigerian Army, in connection with the vandalisation of railway tracks and other facilities in different parts of the country.
Recovered from the suspects were three trucks loaded with railway slippers, steel and clips and the arrests and recoveries were made in the month of April 2022.
The arrest involving the serving Army Sergeant, Sirajo Suleiman, who works with the Nigerian Army Central Ammunition Department, Kaduna, was made on April 27, 2022, by the Kafanchan divisional headquarters of the Command, alongside six other suspects.
They were alleged to have been loading multiple rail plates of steel into two trucks in a bush near Camuru Station, Katchia Local Government Area of the State when Policemen swooped on them.
Identities of other suspected vandals are Idris Bawa, Idris Musa, Shamsu Abdulahi, Anthony Moses and Yunana Gaius.
Three weeks earlier, the Kafanchan Railway Police Division of the Command had intercepted a cement truck fully loaded with railway slippers along Bankin-Kaninkon-Kogi road.
On sighting the Police, the suspected vandals fled the scene abandoning the truck.
During the investigation, one Ahmed Tanko, who resides in Dangoma Village Jam’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State was arrested and reportedly confessed to the crime.
Efforts, according to the Commissioner of Police, Railway Police Command Headquarters, Yetunde Longe, who confirmed both cases, were being intensified to apprehend his fleeing accomplices.
She added that other suspects were arrested by the Kano division of the Railway command, the Dugbe Railway Police Division, Ibadan and the Offa division of the Railway Command, Kwara State.
She, therefore, warned criminal elements to desist from vandalising government property, especially the railways, threatening that anyone caught would be dealt with to the full extent of the law.