By Kola Adeyemi
Lokoja – The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Kogi said it had arrested 1,388 persons for various offences in the state in 2017.
The Commandant of the Corps, Mr Everestus Obiyo, disclosed this on Tuesday in Lokoja.
Obiyo said that the suspects were arrested for armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape, vandalism of electric cables, water and oil pipelines.
He said that the command had successfully prosecuted some of the suspects, securing 67 convictions, while over 400 cases were still pending in courts.
According to him, two pistols and billets were recovered from some of the suspects arrested at Adavi and Igalamela-Odolu local government areas during the period.
The commandant said that a DAF truck suspected to be property of oil pipeline vandals operating in Kogi and Nasarawa States was also seized by the command.
He said that some illegal refineries were also destroyed in Ebiya and Achuze -Epiri communities in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of the state.
“ My men also arrested four trucks laden with crude oil suspected to be stolen in Lokoja axis.
“ The NSCDC in collaboration with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has sealed two fuel stations in Lokoja for selling petrol above the N145 official pump price in December,” he said.
Obiyo said that the command had within the period also recovered twenty pieces of telecommunication batteries belonging to glo at Manyere and 12 Solar panels at Chikara in Kogi Local Government Area.
He listed inadequate operational vehicles, delay in court processes, lack of vital information from host communities and inadequate manpower as some of the challenges facing the command. ( NAN)
