FCT Builds 12 Police Headquarters To Check Kidnapping, Others

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is building 12 new divisional police headquarters across the nation’s capital to strengthen security in the satellite towns and close emerging security gaps.

Two of the projects, located in Ushafa in the Bwari Area Council and Saburi in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), have been completed and are ready for commissioning, while the remaining 10 have reached over 90 per cent completion.

The director of the Security Services Department, FCTA, Mr Adamu Gwary, disclosed this yesterday during an inspection of the facilities, saying the projects were being executed to take police infrastructure closer to residents in communities outside the city centre.

He said the 12 headquarters, two in each of the six area councils, were part of the measures introduced by the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, to address security challenges in the satellite and rural communities.

“Of the 10 ongoing projects, almost all have achieved over 90 per cent completion, following Wike’s directive to all contractors to wrap up work before the end of November,” Gwary said.

He said the Ushafa and Saburi facilities had been completed and would undergo final technical verification before their official handover.

According to him, the new police headquarters are designed to provide both operational and residential facilities for personnel, thereby improving police presence and response time in the communities.

The Ushafa facility has a ground floor containing a central counter and detention facilities, including separate cells for male and female suspects, while the upper floor has eight furnished administrative offices, including that of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO).

The project also has a three-storey residential block comprising six furnished two-bedroom en-suite flats for police personnel, each with a kitchen, sitting room, dining area, and store.

Gwary said a technical team from the Federal Capital Development Authority’s (FCDA) Public Building Department would verify the completed works against the Bill of Quantities before the final handover.

He recalled that Wike, during town hall meetings held across the six area councils in 2023, had promised to decentralise security infrastructure and extend it to communities facing security challenges.

He said the Ushafa station and another facility at Igbu, about 35 kilometres away near the FCT-Nasarawa border, would provide security coverage for satellite communities and strengthen the territory’s borders against kidnapping and other cross-border crimes.

Gwary said the FCT had recorded a reduction in reported kidnapping and other serious crimes since 2023, attributing the development to improved security equipment, infrastructure and action against criminal collaborators.

He, however, warned residents providing information or other support to kidnappers and criminal groups that they would face prosecution.

“The minister did not mince his words in terms of issuing a stern warning to those informants that they will be treated like kidnappers,” he said.

The director urged residents to promptly report suspicious activity to security agencies, stressing that community intelligence remained critical to preventing crime.

He disclosed that the FCTA had also increased its monthly logistics support to security agencies and was deploying technology to strengthen surveillance across the territory.

According to him, the Airport-to-Villa corridor is currently under technology-enabled surveillance managed from the Force Headquarters control room, while plans are underway to extend the system to other high-risk corridors.

“Aerial surveillance assets are being finalised for deployment to track criminal elements in rugged terrains,” he said.

The Site Engineer for the Ushafa project, Mr Kabir Muhammed, said the contractor worked with the relevant monitoring and evaluation teams to deliver the facility within schedule.