Vandals have taken their illicit trade to the railways, where they are wrecking trains, tracks and properties. Their action is threatening the smooth operation of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC),writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE.
KAFANCHAN is a major economic hub in the southern part of Kaduna State.
Notable for its agrarian economy, Kafanchan’s allure is its confluence of cultures, as the train has made it possible for people of all tribes to co-habit. It is home to many Nigerians who live in the agrarian but peaceful Sahelean community.
The train does not only bring people to Kafanchan, its railway station is a convergence point and the hub of commerce, with people thronging the station to trade.
But this is only one side of Kafanchan. The town has become home, too, to economic saboteurs, who exploit its sleepy nature to vandalise the train tracks.
Seven of such vandals were caught early this month.
Parading the suspects at the Railway Police Command Headquarters in Lagos, last week, the Commissioner of Police, Nyats Jatau, said they were caught following a tip-off, after cutting the train’s iron tracks.
The suspects, whose ages range from 25 to 32, would leave Kafanchan and operate in the deserted and sleepy villages only to return to the town, where they sell their loot.
Jatau said: “Luck ran against the seven men on February 9, when returning from Barkin Kogi in Jama’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State, where they had gone to vandalise new rail irons.
“They were caught on their way back to Kafanchan following a tip-off, in an unregistered Fiat Bus, which was used to convey the irons, which have been cut to size.
Items recovered from the suspects, Jatau said, were one unregistered Fiat bus, one Tiger TG 2700 Tiger Generator, a cutting machine, one spanner and two ark-saw with four blades.
Others were one extension wire, two screw drivers and four filing stones.
The leader of the vandals, who identified himself as Ibrahim, a bus driver, said they had borrowed the cutting machine and generator from his elder brother, who is a welder in Kafanchan.
“Our intention is to bring the iron rods to town and look for buyers for them before we were caught by the police,” he told reporters.
He, however, denied knowledge of the worth of the iron lines, as, according to him, it was his first time out.
At the Enugu station of the corporation, a similar incident took place last November; a member of the staff of the corporation was allegdly involved.
The staff member, Mr. John Chukwudi Otenyi, was accused by a suspect, Ifeanyi Onwudiegwu, as being the mastermind of a bust deal.
Onwudiegwu, who denied the allegation, said he only bought vandalised rail items, which included steel sleepers and track irons.
He said he was approached by Otenyi to buy 350 pieces of tracks for N400,000. He paid for them, but could not collect the receipt and the covering papers for the sold materials before the police foiled the deal.
He said: “I was working at my scrap dump in Onitsha, Anambra State, when Otenyi contacted me. He said he was a senior railway official and wanted to sell some unwanted scraps; so he invited me to his office in Enugu.
“On getting to Enugu, he told me the cost of 350 pieces was N400,000, so I paid him in cash and got a vehicle to transport the scraps back to Onitsha. We were loading the truck when I went to buy the gas the driver requested for. I had not gone far when Otenyi called to tell me not to come back to his office as policemen were around.
“I was surprised because I thought the transaction was legal, but when he insisted, I ran back to Onitsha, where I reported the incident to members of my union. When they heard my story, they handed me over to the police,” Onwudiegwu said.
Otenyi, however, denied being a criminal, saying he had masterminded the arrest of the thieves based on a tip-off by residents.
Otenyi, 49, a tracks sectional officer, who said he has been working for the NRC for 24 years, denied ever knowing Onwudiegwu. He said his reports and regular alerts and briefings to his superiors up till the eve of the arrests can attest to his dedicated service to the corporation.
Though he pleaded with the police not to believe the ‘criminals’, Otenyi could not say how the suspect knew his name and phone number.
“That is what is still a shock to me,” he told reporters during the parade.
This is not the first time the Enugu station in the Southeast will suffer from the activities of economic saboteurs. Four vandals were arrested in May, last year, by a vigilante group at Amaodu,Nkanu-West Local Government Area of Enugu State.
The Eastern Regional District Manager (ERDM), Mr. Felix Njoku said: “Our tracks, weighing 80 pounds each, were vandalised at Amaodu in Nkanu. The culprits were arrested by the vigilante group in the community and handed over to the Nigeria Railway Police.
”The vehicles they used in the operation were a trailer and a pick-up van.”
The four vandals are in police custody.
In Lagos, a large quantity of railway irons, which was stolen in Apapa, was recovered at Orile by the police on February 12. The recovery, the police said, led to the arrest of four suspects.
Stressing that the activities of the saboteurs, were thwarting the revamping agenda of the government for the railway, Jatau said the nipping of their nefarious activities was a result of the Railway Police Command’s strategies to provide adequate security for workers and properties of the corporation.
One major strategy, Jatau said, is the cooperation and understanding between the police and stakeholders, especially residents of communities on the rail lines.
“We have gone round all the communities, villages and towns where the railway has properties, whether rail line or physical properties, to help us police the facilities. In many places, there are vigilantes and we have urged such groups to help police the equipment and report any incident of theft to their village heads, or the police.
“This is paying off across the country as we swoop on vandals, as soon as they were suspected to be on ground, before carrying out their nefarious activity, even before they could think up an escape route,” Jatau said.
This was restated by Njoku, who admitted that the strategy worked the magic wand that led to the arrest of the Enugu suspects. “The success recorded in apprehending the culprits is attributable to the visit we made to the heads of the communities early this year, calling on them to help us in protecting Railway materials that pass through their communities,” he said.
The corporation’s Managing Director Mr. Adeseyi Sijuwade lamented the high rate of vandalism in the country.
Sijuwade, who was represented by the Director of Administration and Human Resources of the corporation, Mr. Aminu Gusau, said the growing rate of vandalism of rails equipment across the country is becoming worrisome as it can reverse the good intentions of the government to make the trains the backbone of mass transportation of goods and passengers, especially on long distances.
Gusau said rail vandalism could cause trains to derail and lead to the deaths of passengers.
He urged the public to report illegal activities on the railways, saying this was the only way to reduce the crime.
He said: “Vandalism occurs daily and we can hardly quantify the loss to the government and the country, especially now that everyone would want to see results of the huge investment the government has made in recent time on the corporation.”
On the consequences of vandalism, he said: “One basic reality is that we would have to go back to areas where our materials have been vandalised to replace them. Money that could have been budgeted on other things would be spent on repairs and this is would affect our efficiency and draw back our economy. It would also ultimately slow down our response ability.”
