TheCable

Ademola Ibrahim, a commercial bus driver, has been arrested by the rapid response squad (RRS) of the Nigeria police force for illegally removing the rails under and above the Eko bridge.

Ibrahim was arrested at about 7pm on Sunday, although his ally, simply identified as Kampo, escaped the scene.

According to Habib Aruna, chief press secretary to the Lagos state governor, the suspects had attempted to park the bridge’s rails into a waiting Volkswagen Paragon bus with Registration Number MUS 457 XK, when they were intercepted.

The RRS operatives were said to be acting on reliable information to the effect that some miscreants were removing bridge rails, both the ones used to guide the bridge on top and the ones used to tie it under.

“About three days ago, one of our patrol vehicles, RRS 153 went on routine patrol and when they were going, they saw the suspect parking his Volkswagen Paragon bus,” an RRS source said.

“They suspected something fishy and they intercepted the man and interrogated him on his mission in the area. The suspect (Ibrahim) told the RRS team that somebody called him to come and carry a load for him and they conducted a search on the vehicle and found about 30 pieces of bridge rails.

“When they questioned him as to how he came about the rails, he said somebody contacted him to come and park the load for him and he identified the person as Kampo. In the process, they asked him about the whereabouts of the person and he responded that he ran away upon sighting the patrol vehicle.

“Based on that, the patrol team now arrested him and brought him to our headquarters. We interrogated him and he told us the same story that somebody asked him to park the load.

“But from our investigation, when we interrogated him further, we discovered that it was a conspiracy between him and the person that asked him to come and park the load.”

The source added that investigation revealed that Ibrahim had been doing that for a long time, particularly in other locations across the state.

“Their action is capable of making the bridge to suddenly collapse because the rails are the irons that were used to tie the long bridge together and this action is a serious crime that could lead to massive death and destruction of properties,” the source said.

He added that a massive manhunt had been launched to get arrest the other suspect, who is on the run, while Ibrahim would be charged to court any moment from now.

Ibrahim, who spoke to the press, said he was living under the bridge at the Iddo terminus with the suspect on the run, and that it was the said Kampo who asked him to help park some irons with his bus somewhere.

“Kampo told me that he had some irons somewhere and that I should help him pack them,” he said.

“He never told me he stole the irons and while we were parking the irons on the Ijora bridge, we just saw RRS patrol vehicle and he took to his heels upon seeing the policemen and I was subsequently arrested.”