From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps has confirmed the arrest of five electricity equipment vandals.
Eremi Solomon, the spokesman of the Cross River State Command confirmed this in an interview in Calabar.
He said five suspects have been arrested alongside the equipment they vandalized and are currently being profiled with the view of prosecuting them.
Earlier, Ekpenyong Bassey, a community leader told our correspondent that the five vandals were apprehended by members of the community after vandalising a newly installed transformer, some armoured cables and handed over to officials of the NSCDC.
He disclosed that they have been without electricity supply for some time and the vandals took advantage of this to loot the electricity installation.
He disclosed that the suspects vandalized NEPA high tension cables at Jebs road by Peter Umoh street in Calabar South LGA.
He listed the items destroyed by the vandals to include uprisings and armoured cables and said the items vandalized are worth over two million naira.
“The culprits five (5) man squad were apprehended in the act with evidence and handed tto the NSCDC for onward prosecution”, he said.
He added that the vandals had in December last year vandalized electricity equipment in the community, got apprehended but were later released.
He called for prosecution of the suspects to serve as a deterrent to other criminals in the area.