..Suspected Criminals Abandon Children, Wives
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Task Force on City Sanitation invaded criminal hideouts located within undeveloped plots of land in the Central Business District, arrested 20 suspected drug peddlers and other criminal elements and handed over to Wuse Divisional Police Headquarters on Thursday in Abuja.
The hoodlums were said to have escaped and abandoned their little children and wives in order to evade arrest.
The invaded areas, both in Central Business District and Wuse Zone 3 are said to be dangerous black spots, from where all manner of criminals hide.
Comrade Ikharo Attah, the Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to FCT Minister, who led the operation alongside Heads of the Military, Police and Paramilitary components of the Task Force, said the criminal colonies have remained a source of concern to the Administration.
He vowed that while the criminals continue to defy laws and orders, the Task Force will remain firm in its enforcement.
Attah hinted that the criminal activities in the areas are thriving, because the owners of the undeveloped plots of land have left it fallow for over two decades.
He disclosed that the Minister , Malam Muhammad Musa Bello having made passionate appeals to the owners of land to come and develop it, may have no other option than to revoke it.
According to him; ” What we are seeing here today is very bad for the city. We have cleared these places around September 2021, but the place has been rebuilt because owners of the undeveloped plots have left it fallow for about two to three decades now.
” FCT Minister has called upon them to come and develop these lands, but have not come. The FCTA may have no other option than to think of revoking the plots “.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Director, Enforcement, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Kaka Bello , lamented that government has been spending a lot of money mobilising human resources for the clean up of the undeveloped plots.
He said that the Administration may invoke relevant provisions of Environmental laws, and compel owners of the plots of land to pay the cost of the continuous cleaning.
