Arrest These Public Enemies
Everyday people excavate roads built with billions of naira, they steal cables, electricity transformers, steal steel manhole covers, remove bridge railings and vandalise infrastructure. Although the items stolen or vandalized were put in place by government, it is the people who bear the brunt of their actions.
The sad thing however is that after a little alarm is raised and government officials spit fire, the vandals and thieves usually return to work, back to business as usual.
In Lagos State, manhole steel covers have become the latest target of these public enemies. The thieves not only carry the steel covers away, they also made away with NITEL underground cables.
Along the Old Ota Road, between Agege and Abule Egba in Lagos State, the lids of five manholes in the middle of the road were stolen, with motorists and even pedestrians falling into these holes, sometimes with fatal results.
The despicable act of undermining infrastructure put in place for millions of Nigerians beats the imagination. Sometimes, one wonders if these vandals ever ponder about the millions of Nigerians their actions affect, the millions plunged into darkness, after the theft of high tension cables conveying the often elusive electricity to cities and villages?
The Lagos State government has drawn attention to this latest target of thieves and vandals.
But it must not stop there, it must take positive steps to rein in the monsters, by declaring war against them.
Government agencies, the police, other paramilitary bodies and the public must be mobilized to arrest these public enemies. The Neighbourhood Watch, Civil Defence, CDAs and the general public must stand up to be counted in the new war. Let the people be empowered to ask questions when people climb electricity poles in the name of working with PHCN. We must ask whether such people have the identification cards of PHCN. We must ask questions when roads are cut in the name of connecting water pipes to houses. We must start asking questions when manhole covers are opened and people enter them to effect those bogus repairs. Let’s ask if they have the permission of government.
It is one of the ways we can protect government’s property as our commonwealth.
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