By; ARCHIBONG ESUENE, Makurdi
It was a bad day for pipeline Vandals in Makurdi as men of the Benue State Community Volunteer Guards, (BSCVG) arrested two of the gang members in Yakyor, around Apir area of Makurdi Local Government Council.
The culprits were trailed and arrested at the weekend after they had sold their first batch of the loot and shared the sum of N400,000 among six of them.
Parading suspects in Makurdi, the Special Adviser to Governor Hyacinth Alia on Security and Internal Affairs, Chief Joseph Har, PSP, described the culprits as saboteurs and commended the guards for doing a good job, promising that the government would make example of them to serve as deterrent to others.
“I want us to understand the gravity of what these guys have done. Pipeline is a national critical infrastructure just like power and communication lines. In those days of military era, pipelines or national critical infrastructure vandalism was shoot at sight, as you see them you shoot them immediately.
“Today, people are gradually taking advantage of this democracy and doing things that are unimaginable.
So they go about vandalizing the pipes, strict lights and also remove man holes.”
“Imagine pipes that are meant to transport petroleum products all the way from Niger Delta to this axis you go there with machines to go cut them and sell. You are a saboteur.
“You are sabotaging the Federal Government, you are making lives that are supposed to be smooth not smooth again, the roads are being overused because trucks are passing with petroleum products when it should pass straight from Port Harcourt to Apir here. This is not possible because the pipelines are not existing again.”
He lamented that, “We have had course to arrest these people because the Community Volunteer Guards BSCVG are so effective in the state but as soon as they are transfered, the next day you see the same people outside. For this one we will follow it to the end because they are destroying the economy”.
Har who stated that he had been appealing to the youths to eschew crime vowed to use them as an example to deter would be vandals.
“It is because people did this and went free in the past. So the message for the youth will be what would happen to these ones. It is a no go area and we are going to work harder to ensure that these boys are brought to book. They will face the consequences.”
He noted that the state governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia is working tirelessly to ensure sanity in the state and urged everyone to key into it.
He warned that the volunteer guards have already been deployed to all parts of the states down to the wards assuring that they have no hiding place henceforth.
Earlier, the Operational Commander, BSCVG, DC Ops, Solomon Ayoosu, said the boys were part of those vandalizing the rail tracks and rail sweepers saying recently they have turned to vandalize petroleum pipelines.
Ayoosu called on the youths to stop such acts just as he urged parents to advise their children against such illegal activities.
The culprits, Levi Tyokyaa and Anongo Msughter, who acknowledged their wrong doings said they saw some boys making money out of it for a long time and decided to join.
In an interview,Tyokyaa who said he thought the pipes were no longer useful to the government, pleaded for forgiveness saying he won’t do it again.
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