Latest Arewa PUNCH findings have indicated that a good fraction of the total number of suspects paraded by the Gombe State Police Command are allegedly engaged in criminal activities bordering on the highways, especially around the pothole-ridden Trunk A roads in the state.
At a recent outing, our correspondent gathered that no fewer than two persons out of the 14 paraded suspects by the command are said to be engaged in criminal activities against motorists.
While parading 23-year-old Usman Yarima and 25-year-old Sani Adamu, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Command, ASP Mahid Abubakar corroborated this claim when he informed Arewa PUNCH that the gang operated from Gombe, Digize and Bozonshulwa, adding that they specialised in taking advantage of the failed sections of the federal highway to perpetrate their criminal activities.
According to Abubakar, the suspects were nabbed for stealing from moving trucks, packs of soft drinks, and some food items.
He said, “An information was received from a credible source that some youths from Gombe, Digize, Bozonshulwa were terrorising the federal highway which links Bojude-Dukku where there are several potholes on the road which every vehicle plying the road must slow down in other not to damage their vehicles.
“As a result, the suspects take advantage and climb on top of the vehicles and steal some goods loaded without the drivers’ knowledge.”
Arewa PUNCH reports that potholes are the ditches on the eroded sections of road surface.
This is often caused by wear and tear, use of substandard asphalt surfacing, erosion, etc, thereby requiring vehicles, depending on their sizes, to slow down in order to manoeuvre through them to avoid collision of vehicles, burst tyres, somersault and other such accidents.
Arewa PUNCH further visited the major roads in Gombe following the incessant complaints by the residents of the state and now reports that with potholes scattered across most federal highways bordering Gombe, more lives are lost on the road not only to collapsed roads but to criminal activities as men of the underworld have taken advantage of the failed state of these roads to wreak havoc on unsuspecting and innocent travellers and residents alike.
Abubakar while restating the command’s commitment to nip in the bud crimes and all forms of criminalities said three cartons of soft drinks and half bag of beans were recovered as exhibits from the suspects.
“In view of our relentless effort to safeguarding the citizens the command wishes to draw the attention of heavy truck drivers, trailers carrying foodstuffs in and out of the state to be wary of criminal elements especially where the road network is bad,” the Police spokesman alerted.
