By Ufoh Awele Anthony

Copyright independent

Anthony Ufoh

The high and increasing levels of criminality in the scrap business have attracted the attention of the National Association of Scrap and Waste Dealers Employers of Nigeria (NASWDEN), as they have stated that the body is ready to partner with the government to address vandalism of public and private infrastructure by criminal scrap dealers.

Metal, both on public and private property, has at vandalised by criminal scrap dealers popularly known as ‘Iron condemn’ in the recent period.

Ogbu Uchechukwu, President of the body, while speaking with the new executives of the association in Abuja, lamented that in the views of the general public, scrap dealers are thieves, a narrative that he stated to be false.

He said that the activities of a few unscrupulous iron scrap dealers as it would be wrong to generalise and paint their members as criminals.

He said: “These accusations are in some cases not without basis or foundation. We have done a study and realised that some of our members use the business of scrap to engage in crime, contrary to the belief and objectives of our founding fathers.

“On October 7, 2024, WE launched Operation Say No to Vandals, the programme commenced the fight against criminals who masquerade as scrap dealers. Through the launch, the union arrested many criminals and handed them over to security agents.

“The union has localised the launch in states. We are stakeholders in the fight to preserve our national infrastructure. We will not watch a few destroy this infrastructure for selfish gain”.

He promised that by next year, the fight against vandals would have been won, noting that under the MOU with the Ministry of Mines and Steel in 2024, scrap dealers are mandated to register with us.

The body, he said, began registration covering the 774 councils and the FCT. Scrap dealers are to load under the supervision of the monitoring unit in their branches and states.