FCT Minister Raises Alarm Over Insecurity As Miscreants Target Suburb Areas

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Muhammed Bello has raised an alarm over the upsurge of insecurity in the suburb areas of Abuja.

The Minister who summoned an emergency security meeting with the heads of various security agencies across the FCT said there was need to synergies to mitigate the invasion of miscreants into the capital city.

The FCT Police Commissioner, Sunday Babaji in his remarks, acknowledged the situation and stressed on the need for residents to provide actionable intelligence to security agencies in their battle against criminality and insecurity in the city.

“You know we cannot be everywhere and like the popular saying, security is everybody’s business. We expect the residents to always be security conscious, give us actionable intelligence which we will act upon,” Babaji said.

Marauders in the last month have targeted suburb areas to perpetrate attacks, specifically abducting residents for ransom and in other cases killing them.

On Sunday, miscreants had killed the chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of the Gwagwalada Area Council while returning from bordering Niger State. He was attacked and killed together with three people along a bush path.

In March, bandits had abducted a traditional ruler, Alhaji Hassan Shamidozhi in the Bukpe community of Kwali council and demanded N20m for his release.

Also in Kwali, two bullet-ridden corpses were found on a farm in Kamadi community by a resident. It was uncertain if they were abducted victims or kidnappers themselves.

Reacting to these incidents, the police commissioner called on residents to form neighborhood watches within estates and local communities to minimize the activities of criminals in those locations.

He said actions from such neighborhood watches made up of credible members of the community will assist greatly in slowing down the actions of criminals.

On the issue of daylight robbery in commercial vehicles, Babaji advised commuters to go to recognised motor parks within the city to board vehicles.

He noted that boarding unregistered commercial vehicles exposes them to dangers and crimes known as “one chance”.

Also speaking, the Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Security, Salihu Mohammed said the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) was also working hard to clamp down on unregistered commercial vehicles used for the crime of “one chance”.

He said “Directorate of Road Transport is doing a lot on the issue of “one chance”. We know the profile of “one chance” vehicles, most of them are not registered or they use tinted glasses”. He called on commuters to avoid such vehicles”.

The meeting was attended by the Minister of State, Ramatu Aliyu; the Permanent Secretary (FCTA), Olusade Adesola; the police Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) in charge of Zone 7, Mohammed Aliyu; the Commander Guards Brigade, MT Usman; the Commandant NSCDC FCT Command Peter Maigari, and other security and senior officials of the Administration.