The minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has threatened to shut down illegal motor parks operating in the capital city of Abuja over rising menace of ‘one-chance’ robbery.
Wike, who made this known on Thursday during a chat with journalists in his office in Abuja, said a joint task force on cross-border crimes was set up last week to tackle the security challenge called ‘one-chance’ robbery.
There have been reported cases of ‘one-chance’ robbery and kidnapping in Abuja with fear gripping some residents over the activities of criminals who disguise as commercial vehicle operators to attack and rob unsuspecting victims.
The minister also blamed the rising crime in the capital city on illegal motor parks and spectre of uncompleted buildings used as dens by criminals.
“We are getting a lot of reports about kidnappings here, about one-chance there. In most cases, we do not even let the public know what has been done. I can tell you the security agencies have done quite a lot. If not, by now, the FCT would have been a different thing.
“One of the areas we identified is that the FCT is at the centre, we have Niger State, we have Kogi State, we have Nasarawa State, we have Kaduna State. And if you check these four states, these four states that experience from time to time, banditry, kidnapping.
“And we discovered that most of the areas that criminals stay are shanties and uncompleted buildings and that is why we say we cannot allow these uncompleted buildings where criminals have made their place of abode. Bring down all these uncompleted buildings, which have turned into shanties and they will have nowhere to hide.
“Just last week, we set up a task force on those states that we have borders with and one-chance. A joint security task force including the SSS, the Police, the Army, the Navy, and they have identified the way they will operate,” he said.
He stressed that to prove that the FCT Administration was concerned about the activities of ‘One Chance’, that is why they have to set up the joint task force for the one-chance and the border control.
“Again, you see a lot of illegal motor parks. When we come up with a policy that we can not allow these illegal motor parks, people will come up to say the economy is hard, things are tough but nobody wants to look at it from the security implication.
“We are also planning to shut down some of these illegal motor parks,” the Minister added.
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