Borno State Government has set up a joint security committee to investigate activities of metal scrap dealers in the state.
This is in the wake of the recent killing of more than fifty metal scavengers in two local governments of Kala Balge and Dikwa.
Briefing newsmen shortly after inspecting some impounded truckload of scrap metals, leader of the Committee who is also the Borno state Commissioner of Police Abdu Umar said they have not seen anything incriminating from the sized items at the state mechanical workshop.
He explained that the Committee is mandated to investigate increased vandalism of government infrastructure, cannibalising private vehicles and other valuable items in liberated areas.
According to the Commissioner of Police, a report would soon be submitted for government to come up with a policy at the end of the investigation on how to sanitise the business.
“If you remember vividly in Kala Balge and Dikwa, most recently there were attacks and this attacks are connected to people removing scrap from within the area, it is good to investigate and that is why we are coming here with the chairman of the scrap dealers. This is to tell you that Borno state government under the leadership of Babagana Zulum is highly concerned about the welfare and wellbeing of the citizen” CP Umar said.
Chairman Borno state scrap dealers association Umar Usman claimed that the metal scavengers killed in Kala Balge and Dikwa are not their members, rather they are IDPs in search of means of livelihood.
He said the association has over three thousand members and the business is highly regulated by the leadership at the local government level.
Malam Umar remarked that before any scrap metal would transport from any liberated community to Maiduguri, it must be cleared by the local vigilantes and traditional rulers of the area.
Dauda Iliya
