The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) has disclosed that it would make Cross River too hot for vandals of public infrastructures in the state.
This was stated by Commandant Charles Brown, the Cross River Commandant of NSCDC on Thursday (Sept. 28) in Calabar while parading a 40-year-old vandal of high-capacity streetlights in Calabar.
Brown said the suspect who identified himself as Ibrahim Sani was caught around MCC Road in Calabar vandalising armoured cables and flex wires of streetlights in the area.
According to him, this act which used to be recurrent was being checked as the agency had in the last 14 months ensured the prosecution of 14 cases all on vandalisation of critical infrastructures.
“The suspect confessed that he sells what he steals to scrap metal dealers and we invited some of them but they all denied him and he was not able to identify any of them.
“We appeal to residents of Cross River to be on the lookout for any vandal of government property in their communities and report to the corps because security men are not spirits.
“Also, we need the partnership of the state government in the area of facilities, so we can patrol and keep surveillance of critical and national assets in the state,” he maintained.
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He added that the suspect would be charged to court and the judges would decide his fate.
Similarly, Mr Francis Ekpo, a member of the task force in charge of the management and expansion of streetlights in Calabar, said it was disheartening that some criminals were bent on keeping the city dark to pave way for their heinous activities.
According to Ekpo, while the state government was trying to ensure that Calabar was illuminated at night, criminals go around at night to vandalise these expensive high-capacity streetlights.
“One of the most expensive infrastructures to run in the state is power because armoured cables and flex wires are very expensive, yet these criminals vandalise them for their copper content.
“I want to call on the youths in the communities in Calabar to protect public infrastructures in their neighbourhood as it is their properties.
“No stranger can come into your community and dig for armoured cables and you don’t know about it, support the government to keep the state alive,” he said.
He however commended the men of NSCDC for their quick response while adding that the government of the state was working out a plan to ensure that vandals and other criminal elements were smoked out from their holes.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the 40-year-old suspect claimed it was his first time vandalising streetlights in the Calabar metropolis. (NAN)
