The Minister of FCT, Nyesome Wike, has threatened to shut down all illegal motor parks in the capital city of Abuja over the alarming rate of the operations of ‘one-chance’ syndicates in the city.
Wike made this known on Thursday during a media chat with journalists in his office in Abuja.
MUK TV recalls that the operations of the one-chance syndicates, who, in disguise, operate with commercial vehicles to dispossess unsuspected commuters of their belongings and, afterward, throw them away from the vehicle, have become rampant in Abuja.
The death of a promising career lady, Greatness Olorunfemi, who died after falling victim to the one-chance operators, had led to calls for the FCTA authorities to tame the activities of the criminals.
Asked about steps taken by the FCTA to guarantee the safety of lives and properties in the capital city, the minister said a joint task force on cross-border crimes was set up last week to tackle the security menace called ‘one-chance’ robbery.
The former Rivers State governor went on to blame the rising crime in the capital city on illegal motor parks and uncompleted buildings used as dens by criminals.
“We’re getting a lot of reports about kidnappings here, about one-chance there.
“In most cases, we don’t even let the public know what has been done. I can tell you that 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 center—we have Niger State, we have Kogi State, we have Nasarawa State, and we have Kaduna State. And if you check these four states, these four states are states that experience, from time to time, banditry and kidnapping.
“And we discovered that most of the areas where they (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 that have turned into shanties, and they will have nowhere to hide.”
Continuing, the minister said, “Just last week, we set up a task force on those states that we have borders with and one-chance. The joint security task force includes the SSS, the police, the army, and the navy, and they have identified the way they will operate.
“To tell you that we are concerned, that is why we have to set up this joint task force for one-chance and border control.
“Again, you see a lot of illegal motor parks. When we come up with a policy that we can’t allow these illegal motor parks, people will come up to say the economy is hard and 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.”
