Minister Summons Security Meeting Over Rising Cases Of Kidnapping, Banditry In Abuja

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has held an emergency security meeting with the heads of the various security agencies across the Territory over the rising cases of kidnapping, banditry and other violent crimes in the nation’s capital.

At the meeting today, April 10, the minister charged the security agencies to work in synergy to mitigate the seeming increase in criminal activities in the Territory.

This was eve as the FCT Police Commissioner Babaji Sunday said that the Police command has already put in place measures to stem the tide of criminality in the nation’s capital and will also evolve better strategies to combat crime in the FCT.

“We were summoned, all the security heads in the FCT for an emergency meeting where we deliberated a lot on the spate of kidnappings and banditry at the suburbs of the FCT…and we going to improve on our synergy and further strategize on what we have discussed. We have assured the house that they will see changes.”

The Police Commissioner also spoke on the need for residents of the Territory to provide actionable intelligence to security agencies in their battle against criminality in the FCT.

“You know we cannot be everywhere and like the popular saying, security is everybody’s business. We expect the residents to always be security conscious, give us actionable intelligence which we will act upon.”

He called on residents to form neighborhood watches within estates and local communities to minimize the activities of criminals in those locations, saying that actions from such neighborhood watches made up of credible members of the community will assist greatly in slowing down the actions of criminals.

 He also advised commuters to go to recognized motor parks within the city to board vehicles saying that boarding unregistered commercial vehicles exposes them to dangers  in such unregistered vehicles in crimes known as “one chance.”

  Also speaking, the Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Security, Ambassador Salihu Mohammed said that the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) was also working hard to clamp down on unregistered commercial vehicles used for the crime of “one chance”.

“Directorate of Road Transport is doing a lot on the issue of “one chance”. We know the profile of “one chance” vehicles, most of them are not registered or they use tinted glasses”. He called on commuters to avoid such vehicles”.

The meeting was attended by the Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, the Permanent Secretary, Olusade Adesola, the police AIG in charge of Zone 7, Mohammed Ndatsu Aliyu  the Commander, Guards Brigade, Brigadier Genenera M. T Usman, the Commandant of NSCDC  FCT Command, Dr. Peter Maigari and other security and senior officials of the Administration.