Despite rising reports of criminal scrap metal scavenging across the country, two metal scrap dealers in Abia State have denied buying railway tracks and vandalised metals.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP after attending a meeting organised by the state Ministry of Environment and other stakeholders, as well as the Scrap Metal Association in Umuahia, the state capital, they condemned the act.
Distancing themselves from it, Chukwudi Onwukeme and Okeke Ugwuegbu urged the government and security agencies to devise measures to monitor and scrutinise the scavengers and harmonise the business.
The dealers, who assured that they would partner with both the government and the agencies to chase out the suspects, expressed delight and lauded the meeting’s organisers for their efforts.
In an address earlier at the meeting, the commissioner, Philmone Ogbonna, said it was convened to warn the suspects and work out modalities to end unauthorised scavenging in the state.
According to him, the government had initiated a mechanism to scrutinise, regulate, time, and register operators in the business for easy identification and environmental preservation.
In a contribution, his counterpart at the Ministry of Trade and Commerce, Kingsley Nwokocha, stressed that regulation of the business would help in properly identifying genuine scavengers from suspects.
The general manager of the State Environmental Protection Agency, Ogbonnaya Okereke, said the agency was not condemning the business but was disturbed by the suspects’ activities.
He noted that the suspects could be responsible for missing manhole covers on the newly reconstructed roads in Aba and Umuahia and refuse buckets at Isigate in the capital.
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