Troops of the 4 Special Forces Command of the Nigerian Army in Nasarawa State have apprehended 12 suspected vandals with two truck loads of railway sleepers in the state.
Joseph Adekunke Afolasade, the Command’s Acting Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, disclosed this while handing over the suspects to the State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) in Doma, headquarters of Doma Local Government Area of the state.
Afolasade explained that five of the suspects were apprehended during a routine patrol by the troops at an abandoned railway station between Keana and Obi local government areas of Nasarawa State while loading the vandalised rail tracks into the two trucks.
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According to him, the troops conducted another raid operation at the residence of one of the suspected kingpins of the vandals in Lafia, the state capital, which led to the arrest of seven others.
He said, according to the suspects, some prominent persons within Plateau and Nasarawa States sponsored them, after offering the troops a bribe of Five Million Naira to set them free, but it was turned down.
One of the drivers of the trucks, Shamshudeen Lawal, in an interview said, he was hired to convey the vandalized rail tracks to Jos, Plateau State, while another suspect Hasiru Modibo explained that he was arrested for transferring N300, 000 from his account to the vandals.
The suspects were handed over to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps Nasarawa State Command for further investigations before charging them to court.
