Mr Francis Nnadi, the NSCDC Commandant in Ebonyi disclosed this while briefing journalists on the operations of the command on Tuesday in Abakaliki at the command’s headquarters along the Abakaliki – Enugu express road.
He said that the suspect was arrested alongside the younger brother for illegally dealing in cannabis sativa popularly called ‘weed’ in local parlance.
He added that the arrest was made based on information from the people.
According to him, the family of the suspect has warned him and the younger brother who are all the custody of the corps to stop the illegal sales of the banned psychotropical substance on several occasions but, the advice has always fallen on deaf ears.
He said: “The suspect and his younger brother jointly sell the substance and since the family has warned them severally to stop their illegal activity, so they decided to hide the substance.
“So, when they came and asked for the cannabis, one of the brothers told them openly that we have asked you not to sell this thing (cannabis sativa), and based on that I’m not going to release the substance to you.
“So, two of them conspired and stabbed their brother until he fainted; it was a passerby that took the injured man to the hospital.
“Our men received information and mobilised to the scene where the culprits were arrested and the 56 kilogramme of cannabis sativa was impounded.”
The commandant said that the corps had completed investigation on the matter adding that the suspects would soon appear in court.
The commandant who spoke on the arrests of other crime suspects who were nabbed for various crimes at different locations in the state noted that the corps would not rest on its oars until criminals were completely flushed out of the state.
He said that the NSCDC was in collaboration with other sister security agencies to ensure that crime and criminality were stamped out of the state or reduced to the barest level.
He said that one of the arrested suspects was a registered member of the scrap dealers association who specialed in buying stolen irons and rods meant for state government projects.
“We got credible intel, swung into action and recovered irons and rods meant for government projects, on inquiry when we arrested his boy, Mr Samuel Nwambara, we found out that other things even the solar poles and panels that the government installed were recovered from his site.
“I sent my men to go and seal the site, my men were attacked, of course we had to do the needful and eventually, when the real owner came he testified that he received the stolen items from an ‘engineer’ suspected to be in charge of government project.
“Imagine an engineer who was given a task of doing a project for the state selling the irons, rods and materials for the projects, that is an economic sabotage.
“If there is nobody buying the materials from him, he will not do that; investigation is ongoing and we are going to get him and once we get him, be rest assured that he is going to have his own day in a court of competent jurisdiction,” the commandant added.
The Civil Defence boss said that the corps also arrested a suspected criminal, one Henry Nduka who specialed in stealing tricycle (keke napep) from unsuspecting owners and selling them outside the state.
“We arrested the suspect whom we believe is a member of syndicate specialised in tricycle theft in Abakaliki; he stole a ‘keke’ here, sold it in Abia, got to Abia, stole another one and brought it down here to sell which we have recovered.
“Investigation is still going on to see if we can get the rest of the gang members and see how we can can recover the rest of the stolen tricycles in the capital city,” Nnadi said.
Speaking further on the achievements of the corps in the areas of crime fighting, Nnadi said that the corps arrested a suspected burglar, a man in his middle 30s who specialed in breaking into people’s shops and homes and carting away goods and valuable items.
“He was caught in the act with quantities of bags of garry looted from people’s shops; he is a serial burglar and he is under investigation and will be charged to court on conclusion of our investigation,” he said.
The commandant who frowned at the level of crime and criminality especially among the youths in the state urged the citizens to always volunteer timely and credible information on the activities of criminals in their neighborhoods.
“We also arrested a suspect, Mr John Ngwuta over an alleged malicious damage and destruction of property worth over N10 million and he will be charged to court after investigation,” he said.
