Former NITEL Territorial Manager Arrested By NSCDC

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A 62-year-old former Territorial Manager of Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and 11 others were paraded on Thursday by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for stealing.

The former Territorial Manager, Mr Benedict Uwulekhue, and his accomplices were alleged to have vandalised, criminally conspired and sold NITEL equipment worth a huge amount of money.

Parading the suspects in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, NSCDC commander, Mr Pedro Ideba, said two of the accomplices, as well as the former NITEL manager, allegedly offered N140,000 bribe to his men to stop investigations into their alleged offences.

Pedro said they sold some of the equipment to two suspected buyers in Ilorin, pointing out that the equipment included vandalised high tension cables, electricity transformers and a containerised transmitter belonging to NITEL.

He recalled that the defunct NITEL still had some telecommunication equipment in its premises, adding that the arrested suspects included three security men guarding the company’s properties in Ilorin.

The NSCDC boss also disclosed that the buyers could not produce documents to authenticate their ownership of the items, adding that it was during a further investigation in one of the buyers’ house that two industrial electricity generating plants were discovered.

He said the arrested security men had confessed to the crime and that the items had been moved to the command’s headquarters. Also, he said the accused persons would be arraigned in court at the end of investigations.

Speaking with journalists, the arrested former NITEL Territorial Manager said he decided to move out the equipment from NITEL premises for safekeeping because he was on daily basis pressurised by undue prospective buyers wanting to use every means to lure him into agreeing with them in their unlawful bid.

Pedro insisted that he was innocent of the allegations levelled against him, pointing out that his action was in good faith.

Also speaking, the two suspected buyers, Ugwuma Marcelius and Chukwudi Mba, identified as auto electrical dealers, said they bought the items during an auction sale organised by NATCOM in April this year, adding that they had documents to back their claims.

The alleged illegal buyers said they bought the industrial electricity generator for N650,000 each while the containerised NITEL transmitter and high tension cables were bought at N700, 000.

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