By Eunice Orike
In a bid to restore sanity and security to the nation’s capital, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has launched a comprehensive operation to rid Abuja of street beggars, traders, scavengers, and one-chance syndicates.
The Operation Sweep Abuja Clean team has evacuated 210 persons, including 58 women, 72 children, and 80 men, from under bridges and other public places in the city.
The team also apprehended an unspecified number of scavengers, popularly known as ‘baba-bolas’, suspected to be involved in nefarious activities.
Acting Director, Social Welfare, Social Department Secretariat (SDS), Mrs. Gloria Onwuka, who spoke while briefing newsmen revealed that the beggars were caught in the act, waiting for alms from people.
According to her, those evacuated so far were taken to the FCT Rehabilitation Centre in Bwari, where they will be profiled and returned back to their identified states of origins.
She noted that as long as they keep off the streets, then the team too will go and rest, as the Operation Sweep Abuja Clean a continuous process.
Furthermore, the director explained that due to outcry over nuisance and criminal activities, the FCT Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike had directed officials of the department to step up arrest of destitute persons.
“We have apprehended and evacuated 80 men since the commencement of the exercise, the women are 58 while the children are 72 in number. The exercise will continue untill Abuja streets are free of beggars.
“Every day you receive complaints about one thing or the other, One -chance, kidnapping, all manner of evil things in FCT. So, the minister directed us to do away with all those things.
“Most of the beggars go even to the extent of hiring people’s children to come on the road and be begging. And there are families where they are hiring these children, we don’t even know that this is what they are using their children to do.
“They have taken it as a business. They will now go and hire people from other states, put them in vehicle, very early in the morning, they will come in Abuja and start begging. By evening or in the nighttime, they will disappear.
“There is a woman we caught, she now said that she has cancer at the breast. So by the time they loosen the bandage, there was no single wound at her breast.
She also said that the operation also uncovered one-chance syndicates, with one suspect caught carrying a machete and POS cards from different banks.
“The time they pick anybody, they will now ask you, which one is your bank? They will give you the card of your own bank, you press,If you fail, they use that machete and do away with you” Onwuka explained.
Also speaking, Director FCTA Security Services Department, Adamu Gwary, represented by Dr. Peter Olumuji, said the operation aims to address the security concerns posed by these individuals, which have become a source of worry for residents.
“The Honourable Minister has directed the Commissioner of Police and all other relevant agencies to ensure that the FCT is rid of all security threats,” Dr. Olumuji said.
Gwary noted that the operation will continue until every nook and cranny of the FCT is covered, and all security threats are eliminated.
“We want to believe that most of the people arrested, they have constituted degrees of crime and other things in the nation’s capital.
“The security concern of most of these nuisances within the FCT have become a source of great worry to the residents. And the Minister has given that directive to the Commission of Police and all other relevant agencies to ensure that the FCT is rid of all these security threats” Gwary said.
The operation, which has covered several areas including the city center, Kubwa, Gwarimpa, Asokoro, Garki, and Wuse, is ongoing and expanding to cover every nook and cranny of the FCT.
The operation is expected to continue until the FCT is rid of all security threats.
