Some unknown individuals have stolen railway bars from sections of the Achimota-Nsawam stretch in the Greater Accra region.

According to residents along the railway stretch, they saw about twenty men with equipment used to remove the bars.

They told JoyNews that the perpetrators arrived in batches, with the first group conducting the act at midnight, and the second group removing the bars at around 6 am.

“We slept overnight and saw them removing it from the sources. We don’t know any of them, and we have no information about them,” a resident alleged.

They said the incident occurred about two months ago. When they questioned the men, they were told that “authority from above” had instructed them to remove the bars. “The following day, when they came, they arrived with the police,” another resident told JoyNews.

Another resident claimed that the thieves removed the bars on four separate occasions, and their attempts to stop them were unsuccessful.

One of the locals, who identified himself as the youth leader, also alleged, “We approached them and asked where they were sending the railway bars. They said they were sent from the Flagstaff House. When we asked for documents to back their claim, they showed us a document from the office of the president.”

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister for Railway Development, Kwaku Asante-Boateng, noted that it would cost the state $5 million per kilometre to replace the stolen bars.

The Achimota-Nsawam stretch, which is over a century old, was built during colonial rule. Recently, the government had renovated the stretch before the theft occurred.

The situation has since disrupted railway movement along the stretch.