Joint taskforce raids scrap dealers shops, recovers more manhole covers

A joint security team comprising of the police and civil defense corps raided some scrap dealers shops at Zuba, Dei- Dei and Saburi along Gwagwa Road and recovered more manhole covers alleged to have been stolen from the city centre of Abuja. Abuja Metro, had reported that the motorists decried activities scavengers for allegedly removing […]

A joint security team comprising of the police and civil defense corps raided some scrap dealers shops at Zuba, Dei- Dei and Saburi along Gwagwa Road and recovered more manhole covers alleged to have been stolen from the city centre of Abuja.

Abuja Metro, had reported that the motorists decried activities scavengers for allegedly removing manhole covers within some roads in the city center of Abuja, which they said has continued to cause hazard to motorists plying roads.

Following the outcry of the activities of the manhole covers theft by scavengers, the FCT Police Commissioner, CP Olatunji Rilwan Disu, arrested and paraded over 50 suspects and recovered several manhole covers and streets lights

from some scrap dealers at some suburbs of Abuja over weekend.

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Th e FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had through his media spokeswoman, Lere Olayinka, also decried vandalisation of

government property, especially manhole covers and street lights.

 

Olayinka, in her X handle over the weekend, said some suspects were arrested by security operatives

for theft of manhole covers, even as the FCT minister has vowed to prosecute those behind the theft .

Confirming the raid of some scrap dealers through telephone to our reporter on Wednesday, a civil defence officer who was part of the joint operation, but preferred anonymity, said the raid was carried on Wednesday, at Zuba.

He said the joint security team after intelligence information moved swiftly to some scrap dealers in Zuba and Dei -Dei as well as Saburi along Gwagwa Road, where several manhole covers, electric cables and iron rods were recovered.

He said some of the dealers who upon getting information of the coming of the security team fled

their shops, even as he said some suspects were arrested during the raid.

“You know some of the scrap dealers up on siting the security team escaped, sensing that they are coming after them, while several manhole covers, electric cables were recovered at some shops during the raid,” he said.

He disclosed that seven suspects who are scavengers were arrested during the raid, even as he said the suspects have been taken to the FCT Command headquarters of the Civil Defence Corps.

“I am sure before the end of today, the suspects will be paraded alongside the exhibits that were recovered from them as they are at the FCT NSCDC office,” he said.

An official of the NSCDC in the FCT who preferred anonymity, confirmed the arrest of seven suspects during the raid on some scrap dealers at Zuba, Dei-Dei and Saburi on Wednesday.