The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has sealed all facilities belonging to two Chinese-linked steel companies in a sweeping operation targeting what security operatives described as an organized criminal network allegedly responsible for dismantling railway infrastructure across the country and recycling the stolen materials into commercial steel products worth billions of naira.

The Corps secured comprehensive court orders authorizing the sealing of all headquarters, branches, and subsidiaries of Inner Galaxy Steel Company and Jiuxing Integrity Industrial Ltd nationwide. Armed with valid warrants, operatives of the Commandant General’s Special Intelligence Squad raided the companies’ facility in Birnin Yero, Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, where large quantities of railway sleepers and tracks allegedly removed from national rail corridors were recovered and handed over to the Nigerian Railway Corporation as prosecution exhibits.

Preliminary findings reportedly exposed a logistics chain through which vandalized railway materials were transported from various parts of the country to the companies’ facilities for industrial processing. Confessions allegedly obtained from arrested workers indicated that stolen railway components were moved to the companies’ headquarters in Aba, Abia State, and other branches, where they were converted into roofing sheets, nails, and other steel products for commercial sale.

The closure order was subsequently extended to the companies’ headquarters in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State and a major operational hub in Tasha Rawayyah, Gusau, Zamfara State. Chinese nationals linked to the management of both companies were formally summoned for questioning but had not honoured the invitation at the time of the announcement.

The suspects faced charges including conspiracy to commit felony, theft, destruction of railway infrastructure, obstruction of railway operations, concealment of stolen property, and providing support for terrorist activities.

The Commandant General said the operation represented a major breakthrough in the fight against organized economic crimes and pledged that every individual found culpable would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.