Security in FCT has improved – Wike

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike has said there is marked improvement in the security situation of the FCT

The FCT Minister stated this while addressing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, shortly after a closed-door meeting on security with the Senate at the National Assembly following an invitation by the upper chamber to brief it on the security situation of the FCT.

Speaking after the closed-door meeting the Minister said there has been a reduction in crime and criminalities in the FCT, adding that two of the most wanted kidnappers in the FCT have also been arrested.

Barrister Wike stated that though the FCT has not reached where it wants to be in terms of security, he said there was a marked improvement in the security situation as attested to by the lawmakers.

The Minister said it was impossible to put a total stop to crime and criminalities within any society, but assured that the FCT Administration, working with the security agencies, will continue to do its best to secure lives and property in the nation’s capital.

According to the Minister, “Even the Senators agreed that security has quite improved in the FCT. There is no part of this world where criminality has been eradicated completely.

“What we are trying to say is being able to limit or reduce the level of insecurity. But if anybody tells you that as a society is concerned, you will not have one form of criminality, that is not correct and we must have to tell ourselves the truth”.

Barrister Wike also disclosed that the kidnapping incidents in the FCT were sometimes stage-managed by unscrupulous elements in the society while assuring that the security agencies will continue to ensure that kidnapped victims were released.

According to the Minister, “The kidnappings you hear, sometimes, are stage-managed by people. There are some internal arrangements. Take for example, you have a housekeeper in the house, you have a driver who will plot to kidnap the child of their master. In that case, what do you want us to do? All we can do is to see how the person that has been kidnapped is released. But to stop it will be difficult because it’s an in-house arrangement, where a driver that is involved in bringing a child from school will mastermind the kidnapping”.

Speaking further, the Minister said, “I’m not saying that we don’t have kidnapping. Mind you, two most notorious kidnappers, we have gotten them and that’s why you see that the level of kidnapping has reduced.

“We are not saying that we have gotten where we want to be, but we are doing a lot and people must acknowledge that what used to be is not what we are seeing now and we will continue to do our best by providing the best for our people, but we cannot give you the assurance that there will be no form of criminality. Nobody can say that”.

Also at the meeting were the FCT Commissioner of Police Benneth Igwe, FCT Director of the DSS, ADG Ado Muazu, and the Commandant of the NSCDC, Olusola Odumosu.