How FCT’s poor funding of police is fueling insecurity
15 July 2022 |
2:23 am
Poor funding of the police by the administration of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is hampering policing, thereby fuelling banditry and kidnapping in the nation’s seat of power, The Guardian has learnt.
Poor funding of the police by the administration of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is hampering policing, thereby fuelling banditry and kidnapping in the nation’s seat of power, The Guardian has learnt.
Highbrow areas and border communities in Abuja have been witnessing upsurge in crimes, with dozens of people kidnapped, robbed and murdered.
Consequently, commuters and pedestrians now face the risk of being robbed or kidnapped in cabs operated by criminal elements, popularly called ‘One-Chance’.
Gunmen suspected to be bandits on went on a rampage in the FCT recently, setting ablaze two tractors and abducting about 22 farmers.
The incident occurred at Rafin-Daji community, Gurdi ward of Abaji Area Council of Abuja. A farmer, who escaped the abduction, told newsmen that the incident happened at about 2:00p.m. on Thursday, June 23, 2022, when bandits wielding AK-47 rifles attacked on their farms in the Rafin-Daji community, which shares boundary with a community in Niger State.
According to him, 13 persons from same family were among those abducted. He said the 13 family members, including two females, were working on separate farmlands when bandits swooped on them.
The district head of Gurdi Chiefdom, Alhaji Bala Mohammed, confirmed the abduction and burning of tractors. He said his people were under siege as bandits usually invade his community through Niger State.
Bala said he had reported the latest kidnap incident to the police and also the authorities of the Abaji area council.
Acting police spokesperson for the Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Omotayo Williams, then confirmed the incident.
Again, operatives of FCT Police command, on June 13, 2022, recovered the body of Hussaini Aliyu Takuma, a farmer, in a Well at Jeda Community in Kuje Area Council.
ASP Williams disclosed that the suspected killers had been apprehended and investigation was ongoing.
The body of the victim was moved to the Kuje General Hospital before it was taken for burial. A source in the police told The Guardian that the FCT police Command is grossly under-funded by the FCT administration.
The source disclosed that the Command does not have enough patrol vehicles to enhance its activities in the seat of power.
Although, police hierarchy in the FCT command kept sealed lips on the matter and would not talk to journalista, a visit by The Guardian to Kabusa Police station in Kabusa, a suburb of FCT revealed total negligence of the police by the government. Kabusa is a relatively well-populated area in Abuja. For the most part, Kabusa is still developing, with informal settlements scattered around the district.
Kabusa is located near Lokogoma to the north, Apo to the east and Galadimawa to the west. To the south, are a number of undeveloped districts.
The Kabusa police station, which covers a crime-prone area of FCT, can only boast of one patrol vehicle, which is in a state of disrepair. The station covers villages within its AOR that takes about two hours drive and can barely respond to distress calls due to poor mobility, when such villages are attacked.
Most border communities in FCT lack police presence due to lack of mobility by the command. Although there is systemic underfunding of the police in Nigeria, security experts believe that police in capital cities like Abuja should be well funded to avoid national embarrassments.
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