The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has intensified its crackdown on criminal hideouts across Abuja suburbs, declaring that the renewed Operation Sweep would target illegal settlements and abandoned structures being used as safe havens by suspected criminals.
Secretary of the FCTA Command and Control Centre, Peter Olumuji, disclosed this during an enforcement operation in Wassa, a satellite community in the Federal Capital Territory.
Olumuji said the operation had now moved beyond the Abuja city centre to notorious black spots in suburban communities including Karasana, Kugbo, Jikwoyi, Karshi and other fast-growing outskirts of the nation’s capital.
“We have received a lot of intelligence reports about crime and criminality in these areas. Some of these locations have served as safe havens for criminal elements,” he said.
According to him, the operation is aimed at dismantling illegal structures and settlements allegedly being used as hideouts by criminals threatening the security of residents.
“When you look at this critically, Development Control had already marked this place since February 25 this year. Enough notice was given to residents to vacate the area,” he stated.
Olumuji explained that officials also carried out sensitisation campaigns and engaged community leaders before the enforcement exercise commenced.
“The purpose of this removal is to ensure that the security of the FCT is sustained and residents remain safe at all times. That is why we are taking proactive steps,” he added.
The FCTA official stressed that the operation would not be restricted to the city centre, insisting that security agencies were determined to flush out criminal enclaves from satellite towns and border communities.
“Wassa is not in the city centre, yet we are here. We are also identifying locations in Kugbo, Jikwoyi, Karshi and other places that serve as safe havens for criminal elements. The more we remove these hideouts, the more we improve security in the FCT,” he said.
Also speaking, Head of Enforcement at the Social Development Secretariat (SDS), Ukachi Adebayo, revealed that over 800 destitute persons had been evacuated from different parts of Abuja as part of the operation.
Adebayo said those evacuated were profiled and rehabilitated rather than abandoned.
“After evacuating them, we profile them and take them to our centre where we care for and train them before reintegrating them back into society,” she explained.
She, however, admitted that the agency was facing operational challenges in sustaining the exercise.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Wassa community, Garzali Umar, backed the operation, saying many of the transient occupants in the area were unknown to both residents and security agencies.
He noted that the community had repeatedly complained about suspicious movements and the growing use of informal settlements by criminal elements.
