- The committee will investigate criminal hideouts, strengthen enforcement operations, and ensure sustainable safety measures across the nation’s capital territory.
- Olayinka emphasised that criminals in Durumi and Area 1 were preventing allottees from accessing land for development projects.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has vowed to demolish illegal settlements and shanties serving as hideouts for criminals across Abuja.
This waa disclosed in a statement on Monday signed by Lere Olayinka, The senior special assistant on public communications and social media to the minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
“The ongoing onslaught on criminal hideouts in Abuja will continue,” the statement said.
Olayinka listed areas of concern to include Durumi District and Area 1 in Garki.
He said Wike had constituted a stakeholders’ committee comprising security chiefs, FCTA officials, civil society groups and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
According to him, the committee is mandated to strengthen security and ensure the safety of Abuja residents.
“High-level criminal activities such as robbery, carjacking, drug peddling and other heinous crimes with its attendant security implications to law-abiding FCT residents cannot be allowed to continue,” he added.
Olayinka explained that the shanties in Durumi and Area 1 were obstructing development and had become operational bases for kidnappers, drug peddlers and one-chance operators.
He recalled that three months ago, over 120 miscreants were apprehended in security raids within the affected districts.
During the operation, armed robbers, car-jackers, drug traffickers and one-chance syndicates were arrested.
Also recovered were seven stolen vehicles, 79 motorcycles and 155 ATM cards forcefully taken from victims of one-chance operators.