Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE police in Singida Region have arrested nine people for allegedly sabotaging electricity and water infrastructure.
The suspects are said to vandalise the infrastructure of Tanesco and Singida Urban Water and Sanitation Authority (Suwasa), which has caused a loss of millions of shillings.
Singida Regional Police Commander Sweetbert Njewike told reporters that the suspects were arrested in different places in Singida Municipal Council between December 30 and 31, last year, after being found with various construction materials belonging to Tanesco and Suwasa.
He mentioned the materials as five boxes of dropout fuse, 150 pieces of cross arm, 175 pieces of section strap, 17 pieces of eye bolts, 53 pieces of stay insulator, 6 pieces of base plate and 10 pieces of suspension material, 4 pieces of tension clamp bolts and 5 pieces of piercing connectors.
Others are 54 pieces of parallel gloves, 13 pieces of midspan joint, one piece of strain clamp, 5 pieces of pole numbers, one pig tail, 11 bags of copper wire, 42 water pipes, one water meter and six water pipe connectors, 10 stay rod pieces and 10 base plate pieces.
The rest include 10 pieces of stay insulator, 10 pieces of top stay, 30 pieces of gay grip and 50 pieces of stay wire meter.
“We are also holding a Mitsubishi Canter (T446 AYC), the property of NgieCo Electrical Company Ltd based in Arusha which was found with smuggled materials from Sepuka REA Camp in Ikungi District,” the RPC said.
He, however, could not disclose the value of the materials impounded, saying they were still working on it, adding that preliminary investigations showed all suspects were, in one way or another, involved in the purchase and sale of scrap metals, thus they utilised loopholes to buy and sell stolen equipment.
