Minister blames traders, beggars from neighbouring states for insecurity in FCT

Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Minister, Muhammad Bello, has accused traders and beggars from neighbouring states of being behind the security breaches witnessed in the territory.

This was made known to Journalists in a statement by the Director, Information & Communication, FCT, Muhammad Sule, on Friday in Abuja.

This is as the FCT Security Committee, chaired by the Minister, said it would work with the various communities to build a viable vigilante network in the rural communities, especially those prone to incidences of kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism, among others.

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Represented at the meeting by the FCT Minister of State, Dr Ramotu Tijani-Aliyu, the minister also said the committee had concluded plans to launch the resuscitated G-7 Security Joint Operation in September 2022, involving states that are contagious to the FCT.

The G-7 Joint Security Operation is expected to fight crime in all the nooks and crannies of the member-states, especially the rising cases of kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism in the rural areas of the FCT and states bordering the FCT

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The statement reads in part, “The Security Agencies in the FCT have up their game. People, who have no business being here, are being sent away.”

“Some of them come under different guises such as begging, street trading, among others. They usually come from neighbouring states and are causing security breaches here. That is why we have decided to send them out”, he said.

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The FCT Police Commissioner, Sunday Babaji, said the G-7 Joint Security Operation that was being revived had received the support of sister security agencies as well as the Commissioners of Police in the member-states, who had all agreed on the need to collectively flush-out these criminals.

He also revealed that the security agencies have gathered useful and actionable intelligence and would soon go after all criminals within its jurisdiction.(Nigerian Pilot)