…As 536 Structures Are Demolished
Residents of Mpape village wanted stronger security surveillance in order to dissuade angered displaced criminal groups from attacking innocent people.
Unprovoked attacks and theft of innocent people’s personal belongings have continued since the intensive cleaning operation began, with a focus on structures along road corridors and shanties housing suspected criminals, according to the horrified residents.
The clean-up exercise found 536 structures, the most of which were shanties, as well as local drama theaters, also known as ‘gidan drama’ in hausa, and a number of other locations suspected of being criminal hideouts.
Residents’ reactions to the intense bombardment, on the other hand, were divided.
While some locals claimed that the activity produced a clean environment, others urged that it be restricted to the highways.
Comrade Ikharo Attah, Chairman of the FCT Ministerial Committee on City Sanitation, said the cleanup exercise will take a long time, adding that the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, has promised to restore sanity to Mpape.
Attah went on to say that several of the structures demolished near highways were said to be housing criminal gangs.
While the administration was sad that the exercise caused so much disruption to citizens, he highlighted that the government could not be on the lookout for illegalities that would lead the exercise to be overrun.
According to him; ” what we observed today is the excessive level of criminalities in Mpape is very worrisome, you can see that even today they are still snatching people’s things.
” Several arrests have been made of the criminals. We thought we could just restrict ourselves to along the roads, but we have to move to where the criminals are staying”, he said.
On the arrested suspects, the Commander Combined Task Force, Idowu Azeez disclosed that about four suspected criminals that were arrested with some dangerous weapons were handed over to the Mpape Police divisional headquarters for further investigation.
He also noted that Security will be beefed in the area to forestall further attacks of the residents.
Also speaking , the Secretary, Command and Control of FCT Security Services, Mr Peter Olumuji said the Secretariat was working in concert with relevant security agencies to provide more surveillance within the area.
Olumuji noted that the reported increased snatching of personal belongings from residents, was because the dislodged criminal elements have become shelterless.
He hinted that the security arrangements been put in place will ensure that all the criminal elements were completely eliminated from the place.
