At LEADERSHIP PODCAST, Odumosu Says 500 Vandals, Scavengers Arrested In One Month

Federal Capital Territory (FCT) commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Olusola Odumosu has said the joint task force under Operation Safe FCT has arrested over 500 vandals, scavengers and manhole thieves among others.

He said the FCT would soon be free of vandals and other criminal elements following the renewed vigour of security operatives.

“The way we are going now, FCT will change; vandals, criminal activities will soon stop in FCT”.

Odumosu disclosed this during his appearance on LEADERSHIP Podcast “Everyday Tori” yesterday.

He said: “Under Operation Safe FCT, we have arrested over 500 criminals, such as manhole thieves, one-chance operators, vandals and other criminal elements.”

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According to him, the NSCDC alone had arrested over 80 scavengers, some of whom were arrested at about 2am.

He stressed that people sleeping under bridges have no business in the FCT.

“In FCT, we don’t joke with night patrol and so we make arrests and take them to court”.

The Commandant called for residents’ support and said the security situation in federal capital calls for the attention of everyone

He, however, stated that the minister upon assumption of duty summoned all security agencies, brainstormed and constituted a task force to check the menace.

He said the task force had achieved tremendous results assuring that the FCT will soon be free of criminal elements who hide in shanties and other ungoverned spaces.

He said, “The problem of crime and insecurity is not peculiar to us; even the advanced nations have their own. That is why we keep saying the business of security is everybody’s business. We need support, we need information; we cannot be everywhere but together we can overcome it. Some of these criminals live among us but we don’t want to give security agencies information.”

He continued: “The issue of one-chance is not handled by only NSCDC.  We have a good working relationship among all security agencies working in FCT.”

 When the minister assumed office, he called us to ask what was happening and we brainstormed. The minister then constituted a task force among security agencies to halt the menace and we have achieved tremendous results.  It is not the efforts of NSCDC alone but combined efforts of the task force.

“The business of security is not done haphazardly; we begin with surveillance by plainclothes security personnel.  Those places we raid are identified as criminal hideouts. We don’t work alone. We share intelligence and that is why we are achieving results.

“Our mandate is protection of critical assets, we discovered that those manholes missing in Abuja are being sold somewhere, so that is why we demolished “pan taker” markets. For shanties, there are people without houses in Abuja, who hibernate in those shanties.”