The Federal Capital Territory Police Command has paraded no fewer than 98 metal scavengers arrested in various areas of the nation’s capital.

Items recovered from them were mainly manholes, and other metals stolen from government-owned infrastructure.

Addressing journalists during the parade, the Deputy Commissioner of Police Operations, Ben Igwe, said that the scavengers were arrested on Sunday night.

He added that some of them were informants to kidnappers and armed robbers, adding that they would be charged to court immediately.

He said, “The suspects were arrested over the night as a result of the ban on scavenging in the FCT. We arrested a total of 98 of them. We are unrelenting in our resolve to rid the FCT of these scavengers. They have removed all the manholes in the FCT, melted them, and resold them. They have damaged our infrastructure. We arrested them from various divisions, Wuse, Apo, Durumi, Kabusa, and others.

“We recovered a lot of items from them which included manholes and other items you should not find in their custody, some of them are informants to armed robbers and other criminals. They would be charged to court.”

Igwe said, “We are asking the remaining ones to relocate. Their influx to the FCT constitutes a security threat to the FCT and we would start arresting them. We have given out our emergency lines to the residents, wherever you see them, you must report.”