By Chris Agabi
Worried by the state of vandalism of national assets, the National Assembly is finalising a bill prescribing the death penalty for offenders.
National assets like rail tracks, power lines, fuel pipes, telecoms facilities and many others have come under intense destruction by vandals over the years with attendant huge economic loses.
Senator Adamu Aliero, the Senate Committee Chairman on Land Transportation, gave the indication on Monday in Kano during an on-the-spot assessment of the construction of a rail line between Kaduna to Kano by the joint committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the former Governor of Kebbi State told journalists that “it is very unfortunate that it is not only the rail line that has been vandalized. As you rightly know, power installations, airport installations, oil and gas installations, and bridges have been vandalized.”
Thus, “The national assembly is thinking of coming up with a very strong legislation that will make it criminal. If possible, any vendor caught sabotaging public infrastructure, the punishment should attract the death penalty. Probably if that happens, it will go a long way in reducing vandalization drastically.”
On funding he said “We will lobby our colleagues in the National Assembly to ensure that this project does not suffer from inadequate funding. We believe that land transportation is very, very vital to the economic development of this country and there is no way a country can develop without an effective rail system.
“We are very optimistic that since President Bola Tinubu has made it a priority, we will be able to deliver on a good time under the Renewed Hope Agenda,” he said.
A member of House of Representatives, Honorable Blessing Onuh called for installation of anti-theft mechanism to stop people from vandalising assets.
The Minister of Transportation, Alkali S’aid also attributed recent train derailments to activities of vandals, who have been temparing with the rail lines.
“The ministry and, of course, the Nigerian Railway Corporation are working hard to ensure that these vandals do not destroy our properties. We are deploying so many major surveillance in conjunction with the security agencies to ensure that these properties are not allowed to be vandalized” he said.
