The Federal Government has said, public infrastructure saboteurs, vendors may face possible death sentence if they fail to desist from sabotaging public infrastructure put in place for ease of the people.
This is as the National Assembly Joint Committee on Land Transport revealed it would come up with strong legislation that would criminalise the sabotaging of public infrastructure with possible death sentence penalty as a measure to curtail the persistent issue of sabotage on the Nigerian public infrastructure.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Land Transport, Adamu Aliero, disclosed this when the Minister of Transportation, Senator Said Alkali, and NASS Joint Committee on Land Transport took a tour of the Kaduna-Kano Railway Modernisation Project, to enable the law makers have a first hand information, appreciate the developments and challenges involved in extending rail services to Kano and by extension Maradi in Niger Republic.
According to Aliero, it is not only rail line infrastructure that is being vandalised, other public infrastructure such as power installations, oil and gas installations, bridges, among many others are prone to vandalism and are at the mercy of vandals on daily basis.
” The issue of vandalization, you see, it is very unfortunate that it is not only the rail line that has been vandalized. As you rightly know, power installations oil and gas installations, and bridges have been vandalized.
“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.”
Similarly, Mrs Blessing Onuh, a House of Representative Member noted that the joint committee is satisfied
with the pace and level of the ongoing project being carried out by the CCECC, adding that a lot more needs to be done, because railway transportation is essential to the growth and development of every nation.
The Minister, while responding to questions from the newsmen said that the President is desirous in ensuring that the railway modernization projects are completed and being put into use, as transportation is an enabler of economic growth and a gateway to the nation’s economy.
Hence the reason why it is one of the eight priority areas of the present administration.
On the issue of vandalism, Alkali assured that the Ministry in conjunction with the Nigerian Railway Corporation is working assiduously to ensure that that vandals do not destroy rail infrastructure.
“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.
“We are just trying to cascade the final stage for the drawdown of the loan so that they will have the financing and that of Ibadan to Abuja is also under very serious engagement with the Chinese government,” said Alkali.