The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), through the Social Development Secretariat has arrested 210 beggars suspected of getting involved in criminal activities across Abuja.
Acting Director of the Social Welfare Department, Gloria Onwuka, disclosed this on Thursday, July 10, while presenting the apprehended individuals at the Vocational and Rehabilitation Centre in Bwari area of the FCT.
According to Onwuka, the arrests were made in continuation of the ongoing ‘Operation Sweep Abuja Clean’ initiative.
She revealed that among those detained were 58 women, 72 children, and 80 men.
The crackdown followed public outcries over rising criminal activities, prompting the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike to order intensified operations against persons without known accommodation.
Onwuka said; “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 even go to the extent of hiring people’s children to come on the road and be begging and there are families where they hire these children from. We didn’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 vehicles, very early in the morning, they will come into Abuja and start begging. By evening or in the night, they will disappear.
“There is a woman we caught, she now said that she has cancer of the breast but by the time they loose the bandage, there was no single wound on her breast.
“The ‘one chance’ issue, there is one that our people picked around 2am. He was carrying a machete with POS and different bank ATMs. 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 machete and do away with the victim.
“We have arrested 80 men since the commencement of the exercise, the females are 58 while the children are 72 in number. The exercise will continue until Abuja streets are free of beggars”
On security, the Director FCTA Security Services department, Adamu Gwary said those arrested were constituting various degree of crimes in the territory.
Gwary, represented by Dr Peter Olumuji, said activities of the beggars had become a threat to the security of the residents.
He said; “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 has become a source of great worry to the residents and the Minister has given a directive to the Commissioner of Police and all other relevant agencies to ensure that the FCT is rid of all these security threats”, he said.
