Anthony Iwuoma
Suspected criminals in Abuja have abandoned their wives and children, as they fled from officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) task force, who raided black spots in the capital city.
Determined to rid some notable crime havens in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of filth, the FCTA officials the Administration’s Task Force on City Sanitation raided the hideouts of suspected criminals, occupying undeveloped plots of land in the Central Business District (CBD) of Abuja.
Drama ensued when on sighting the government officials, the suspected criminals, including drug dealers and other criminal elements, abandoned their wives and children and took to their heels.
However, twenty of them were arrested and handed over to Wuse Divisional Police Headquarters while others escaped.
Activities of the suspects have reportedly degenerated the Central Business District and Wuse Zone 3 to dangerous black spots where diverse acts of criminality are carried out in the city.
Ikharo Attah, Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to FCT Minister, led the raid in company with Heads of the Military, Police and Paramilitary components of the Task Force.
He noted that the FCT administration was worried by the criminal clusters, which sprang up because of the failure of property owners to develop them, vowing that the laws must be fully enforced to sanitise the city.
He added that the minister have appealed to the owners of land to come and develop or risk losing them, as government may be forced to revoke their entitlements.
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“What we are seeing here today is very bad for the city. We have cleared these places around September 2021, but the place has been rebuilt because owners of the undeveloped plots have left it fallow for about two to three decades now,” Attah said.
“FCT Minister has called upon them to come and develop these lands, but have not come. The FCTA may have no other option than to think of revoking the plots.”
The Deputy Director, Enforcement, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Kaka Bello, lamented the huge cost government incurs for the clean up of the undeveloped plots, adding that the administration may compel owners of the property owners to pay the cost of the continuous cleaning.