CITY NEWS NSCDC parades 3 over vandalism of FCTA to make public buildings accessible for Kwali, Dei Dei electricity transformers people with disabilities

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has paraded three suspects over vandalism of electricity transformers in Kwali and Dei Dei in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Commandant, FCT Command, Mr. Patrick Ukpan, while briefing newsmen yesterday, said the suspects were monitored and caught in the act.

Ukpan said, Mohammed Tanko, 22, from Katsina State, was caught vandalising the transformer powering Koroko village in Kwali Area Council.

“He was caught in the act with armoured cables cutter, pliers and hacksaws,” he said.

Confessing, Tanko said he was an automobile electrician who was suspended from where he worked for 43 days and became idle and that he along with his friend, who is still at large, went at night to vandalise the transformer to make quick money.

Ibrahim Saleh, 22, another suspect, said he was a scavenger who stumbled upon the vandalised materials around MOPOL Barracks in Dei Dei and tried to cart them away. NSCDC said he was caught with vandalised transformer covers and had a cable cutter.

The third suspect, Babangida Abdullahi, aged 30, said he did not vandalise the power equipment but was arrested on the grounds that he sold the materials.

The NSCDC said he was the alleged syndicate leader receiving vandalised materials within Kwali area for onward sales.

Ukpan said the suspects would be charged to court for prosecution after investigation.

He also noted that his men are on surveillance of places where such vandalised materials are sold in the FCT.

“We do not just end up trailing the vandalism suspects but we are also on the trail of those places where they go to sell the items,” Ukpan said.

The spokesperson for AEDC FCT South Region, Mrs Patience Toyo, said vandalism affects power supply and often cost the company huge resources to replace the affected transformers.

She said, “In places where we witness vandalism, the community is shut down for a very long period and that means a lot of losses to the company.” The FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello, has said the Federal Capital Territory Administration is working to regulate all future public buildings plans to provide for people with disability beforer approval.

He made this disclosure yesterday when he received a delegation from the Kpakpando Foundation that paid him a courtesy call in his office.

The minister revealed that the FCT Administration also intends to seek ways to amend existing building structures to make them navigable by the physically challenged and other vulnerable citizens, pointing out that a modification of the building housing the minister’s office was carried out last year to provide for a ramp and conference room on the ground floor for meetings with persons with disabilities.

Bello also revealed that plans are ongoing to create informal markets in the Federal Capital City where persons with disabilities, the less privileged and other interested residents could own stalls.

The Chairman of Kpakpando Foundation, Senator Osita Izunaso, said the leadership of the foundation was in the FCTA to explore areas of collaboration towards the establishment of a database for persons with disabilities in the FCT, as well as ensure that all public buildings provided access for the physically challenged.

In his presentation at the occasion, a visually impaired member of the entourage, Mr. Danjuma Attah, who became blind at the age of 13, sought for the support of the FCT Administration through the provision of a plot of land for the construction of a special centre for the blind.

The centre, Mr. Attah revealed, would be equipped with fitness and medical facilities suitable for the blind and the visually impaired.