The suspects and the recovered items
The Enugu State Police Command said its operatives have arrested five suspects in three separate operations involving the alleged vandalism and theft of public infrastructure such as a solar streetlight, road traffic signs, and materials belonging to the Enugu State Water Corporation.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mamman Bitrus Giwa, commended the Police operatives and supporting Neighborhood Watch members for their prompt response, which led to the arrest of the suspects and recovery of the vandalized and stolen items. Giwa advised members of the public to continue providing timely and credible information on activities capable of undermining public assets and security.
The Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO SP Daniel Ndukwe, who disclosed in a press release, gave details of how the said theft occurred and how the suspects were nabbed by the eagle-eyed operatives.
“On September 27, 2026, at about 8:30 p.m., following a tip-off that two men, Wisdom Nuhu and Moses Jonathan, were sighted negotiating the sale of a suspected stolen solar streetlight at a scrap dump in New Artisan Market, Enugu, Police operatives from New Haven Division proceeded to the scene and arrested both suspects, recovering the solar streetlight. During interrogation, the suspects confessed to vandalising and stealing the solar streetlight earlier that day at Graceland Estate, Independence Layout, Enugu,” Ndukwe said in the press release.
The PPRO also said: “Similarly, on September 24, 2026, at about 3:34 a.m., operatives of Abakaliki Road Police Division, acting on a distress alert from the Enugu State Command-and-Control Centre, arrested Chukwudi Nwigbo (male, aged 35), along Abakaliki Road, GRA, Enugu. The suspect and an accomplice, who fled the scene, were detected by the security surveillance system while removing road traffic signs. Many vandalized road signs bearing different inscriptions were recovered from the suspect.”
According to Ndukwe, in another operation on September 15, 2026, operatives of the Command’s Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU), in collaboration with members of the Neighborhood Watch Group, arrested two male suspects, Zubairu Hamanpedimso (aged 31) and Mohamed Adamu (aged 21) for allegedly conspiring to vandalise and steal materials belonging to the Enugu State Water Corporation.
He said that a bag containing iron materials, bolts and nuts allegedly vandalized and stolen from the Corporation was recovered from the suspects. He explained that all the arrested suspects have been arraigned in court and remanded in Correctional custody pending further hearing, while efforts are ongoing to arrest other accomplices still at large.
