Telecom operator petitions Police over alleged vandalism of N63.8m cables

A telecommunication operator, Mr Livingstone Oreye, is seeking for prosecution of five persons, who allegedly vandalised some underground cables belonging to Peace Satellite Communications Ltd., valued at N63.8 million.

Oreye, who is the managing director of the company, made the disclosure to newsmen on Sunday in Lagos.

He recalled that on July 2, 2016, he received a call that some unknown persons were cutting the company’s underground cables bought from Nexus Kablemetal Nigeria Plc and installed in 2004.

The telecommunication operator said that the suspected copper/scrap dealers had vandalised all the company’s underground cables from Ogba to Omole to Ojodu Berger.

Oreye, who is a legal practitioner, said that he had written a petition to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police to investigate the incident presently being handled at the Ojodu Police Station.

In the petition, he explained that despite explanation offered to the suspected copper/scrap dealers that the cables belonged to Peace Global and not NITEL, the suspects broke into the company’s Joint Box (JB), cut over 1,200 petrol jelly-fitted cables at several joints.

Oreye alleged that those who cut the cables were accompanied by military men in OP MESA vehicle, adding that one of his workers was beaten.

The suspected copper/scrap dealers boasted that they were going to uproot the cables up to our telephone exchange at Plot 171, Obadina St., Omole Phase1. Whereas, the documents they were holding never sold Peace Global Properties to them,’’ he said.

According to the petition, NITEL had never had any telephone exchange in Omole Phase 1.

On being told that the cables they were cutting were not NITEL’s cables, they should have stopped to get clearance from whosoever sold to them.

Instead of suspending action, the suspected copper/scrap dealers moved from one joint box to the other, vandalising our cables and putting the cables in big trucks, one of which has vehicle registration number FST 943 XK.

The suspected copper/scrap dealers and their labourers along with the big trucks and army vehicle moved from one JB to the other, pulling out our underground cables and carrying them away in the trucks,’’ he said.

Oreye said in the petition that he drew the attention of the Police in Ojodu to the report that the suspected copper/scrap dealers were still cutting and removing the company’s cables, even as we were in the station.

The Police asked the leader of the suspected copper/scrap dealers to phone his men to stop cutting the cables and bring the ones already cut to Ojodu Police Station, which was done.

One of the suspected copper/scrap dealers called someone on phone and gave the phone to the Police officer, who told us that the matter was above her.

She allowed the cables to be taken away by the copper/scrap dealers after she had written the names of about five of them, their phone numbers and their addresses.

She told the copper/scrap dealers not to do anything to the cables yet but did not ask them to bring the cables back to the police station,’’ the telecommunication operator said.

According to the petition, the papers produced by the suspected copper/scrap dealers should have been thoroughly investigated and their linkage to the cables established before releasing the cables to them.

Oreye added that some of the suspected copper/scrap dealers decided to use force to cut and remove the cables.They must be charged to court for malicious destruction of Peace Global’s Property for justice to take its course.

The vandals have destroyed our telephone network and the perpetrators should be prosecuted because they did what they did deliberately and using documents to cover their intents.

The fact that the suspected copper/scrap dealers did not come with the vendor’s representative showed that they knew the documents that they were holding had nothing to do with the cables they wanted to carry ,’’ he said in the petition.

Oreye noted that what the suspected copper/scrap dealers claimed was that only NITEL could have bought such cables.According to the petition, even when they knew the cables were not for NITEL, they still went ahead to keep on cutting the cables.

We have been wired telephone operators in this neighbourhood (Ogba, Omole, Ojodu Berger) since 2004 and we gave wired telephone lines to five police stations free of charge.He added that the company bought the underground cables in 2004.

Oreye demanded that the commissioner of police should order a thorough investigation of all the suspected copper/scrap dealers, who the Police at the Ojodu Police Station took down their details, to know who they intended supplying the cables to.

According to him, the authenticity of any document stating that the whole underground cables in Lagos have been sold to copper/scrap dealers should be thoroughly investigated.

He said that this is “Because every telephone operator including the National Communication Commission (NCC) knows that Peace Global has underground cables.’’

Efforts made to obtain the reaction of the State Police Command concerning the petition failed.