Federal Capital Territory (FCT) 2015/2016 budget presentation at the House of Representatives Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ended unceremoniously over unsatisfactory disbursement of funds for some projects.
The Committee has also declared to investigate the diversion of N1.5b meant for compensation and resettlement of indigenes affected by the Centenary village project.
At the continuation of the FCT budget defense by the Herman Hembe-led Committee during the week, the lawmakers expressed dissatisfaction with the inability of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to justify the huge disbursement of funds to one of the contractors handling some projects for the FCT.
The Committee was further infuriated by the failure of the FCTA to furnish it with documents earlier requested, including Bill of Quantity for the residences of the Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the United Nations (UN) building.
The Committee was concerned that level of work on the various projects does not reflect the amount of money already sunk into them.
Vice President residence contract was awarded at N7.1b out which N6.2b was already paid while the rehabilitation of UN building awarded at N5.1b had N3.9b already committed to it.
Also, the lawmakers were at a loss over the residences of National Assembly presiding officers that have gulped N12b out of the N24b initial contract sum.
While insisting that the figures given for the projects were outrageous, the Committee expressed dismay that despite collecting so much, the contractors could still abandon the projects.
Committee’s Deputy Chairman, Serguis Ogun said it is imperative for all agencies of government to realise that it is no longer business as usual.
“We are not rubber stamp that you can manipulate us the way you feel, the era of dolling out money for agencies without proper cross checking is over.”
On the investigation of N1.5b meant for compensation and resettlement, the Committee said its decision was as a result of protest by the original occupants of Centenary village when it paid an oversight visit to some projects in the Federal Capital.
The Committee further emphasised the need for an investigation due to complaints from the contractors handling the projects that progress was stunted as a result of resistance and protests by the indigenes over compensation, in addition to poor funding by the government.
The contractors had told the Committee that the protests to the contractors by the affected people were not properly directed as they (contractors) have no issues with compensation.
Bitrus Jiasalo, member representing Abuja Municpal Council/Bwari Federal Constituency of FCT, who expressed disappointment with the compensation matter, regretted that officials of FCDA were only paying lip service to the issue.
“It is disheartening that the engineers of FCDA are all talking of settlement of villagers whereas nothing was paid to them and we cannot even see any plan for integration by the FCT administration as claimed.
“I know that N1.5b was released by the Federal government for compensation of villagers in Centenary Village by the same FCDA yet no money was paid to the indigenes. We are going to investigate this matter,” Jisalo said.
In his reaction to the issue of compensation and resettlement, FCDA’s Director (Engineering), Adamu Abu said the initial agreement between the FCDA and the indigenes was to integrate them and not to pay them compensation in monetary form.
From tales of death, malnutrition and lack of access to education, the myriad of problems confronting children displaced by Boko-Haram seem enormous. HANNAH OJO who visited some IDPs settlements around Abuja reports.
An unmarked cemetery at Mandala Azoro houses the remains of thirteen children who went down like ninepins after a measles outbreak in Wasa, a Village in the FCT Abuja. They were aged five and below. The earth above their bodies still bore a fatal remembrance of the injurious loss; two months after they became victims to the twin inconvenience of poverty and disease.
The children in Wasa IDP location had survived the terrors of Boko-Haram in their home town of Gwoza only to come to a sticky end months later when the infectious but preventable diseases broke through their settlement at an uncompleted estate in the village.
When the news of their death broke in November 2015, the executive secretary of the FCT Primary Health Care Board, Dr Rilwan Mohammed, had given the number of the casualties as 10. The media quoted the same, but the secretary of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Wasa, Usman Ibrahim, confirmed 13 deaths. A personal visit to the grave of the deceased confirmed the accurate figure to be 13.
The measles outbreak, it was learnt, was transferred by the Fulani children to the children of the IDPs through interaction in the only primary school built by government in the village.
“There are no benches in the school so all the pupils sit on the floor. There is no hospital or pharmacy here so when the measles broke, we reported to FEMA (FCT Emergency Management Agency). FEMA called Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) to send us doctors. The measles had been ravaging for 11 days before the doctors came. The children died around November. Some died on the 15th, some on the 13th ,” Usman further submitted.
Sarah Andrew, 27, an indigene of Gwoza who has lost relatives and friends to the Boko-Haram insurgency, also confirmed the demise of the children stating the cause of their deaths as Kada (an Hausa name for measles).
Sarah Andrew
“The children died as a result of lack of immunization. I have been here for two years and I have witnessed pregnant women and children dying,” she said.
Measles is an infectious disease which leads to significant deaths among children in developing countries. It was after these deaths that other IDP children in Wasa were immunized; fulfilling the delayed promise of the health ministry to take measles campaign to the to the doorsteps of all Nigerians irrespective of their place of residence in the country.
However, despite this medicine- after- death approach, investigation by The Nation shows that children in various IDP settlements within Abuja may be in for other disasters judging by the poor sanitation conditions of the five IDP locations visited. The settlements in Wasa, Waru, Durumi, Kuchingoro, Karmajiji Tudun Muntsira are occupied mainly by people from Gwoza local government in Bornu state.
Findings show that the children usually come down with complaints of running stomachs. They are also susceptible to gastrointestinal infections like diarrhoea and Cholera. Polio and Trachoma, an infectious disease of the eyelid spread by poor hygiene and sanitation arising from lack of adequate safe water supply could also result in the future.
When The Nation visited Wasa village, the only borehole for the IDPs built by a youth corps member was no longer functioning. The children were seen fetching water from an infected pond, judging from the brownish colour of the water springing from it. Other children gathered at a well where their fetchers were already scratching the base of the well bringing out coloured water. The scarcity of water is made worse by the parching dust and dryness of the Harmattan season. The abandoned uncompleted estate they occupy has no toilets. They wade to the bushes not far from their surroundings to answer the call of nature. There is also no electricity supply.
The Worst Place to be Born
When the Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU, a sister company of The Economist magazine ranked Nigeria as the worst place to be born in 2013, it certainly did not include the plights of children born in IDP locations in the FCT as an indices for the projection.
The heat was intense on a Wednesday afternoon when the reporter called into Esther Tanko’s tent at the Durumi location for IDPs of Gwoza indigenes in the FCT. She radiates the warmth of a woman who just welcomed a bundle of joy. She is one of the lucky few who possess a mattress which lay on a bare floor. Her son, who is nearing two weeks, is yet to be named. His circumcised penis is still reddish from slow healing, made worse by the hot weather which permeates easily into the shacks used to build the tent. The heat pierces the skin of an adult.
The mother of seven, who spoke in Hausa, narrated her pregnancy ordeal: “This particular pregnancy was very tough for me. There is no hospital here and there was nobody to help. It was some members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG that I attended that took me to the Wuse General Hospital where my blood sample was taken and I was diagnosed of typhoid and malaria. The church paid the hospital bills and bought baby things for me.”
Esther gave birth with the help of other women in the camp. She said the baby, who is almost two weeks old would be named after the pastor of the church which helped her survive the pregnancy.
Unlike Esther, who was able to get help, many of the women in the camp had had to rely on traditional methods during the course of pregnancy. There is no clinic and the hospital they were directed to use by the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is quite a distance and many are not able to cough out money for taxi. They have been forced to rely on traditional methods of pregnancy care and this had not been without casualties.
Esther and baby
Mrs Liatu Ayuba who lost her husband, a policeman, to Boko-Haram and also nurses a 21 year old son handicapped by a bomb attack, is the woman leader at the Durumi IDP camp. She said she has helped deliver about 23 babies in various shackled tents since they arrived the settlement over a year ago.
“There was a particular delivery experience that I won’t forget. It was raining heavily and we could not get the mother’s to the proper position because the floor was wet and flooded. That day I cried. We later carried her with the help of other women to my own tent where she delivered the baby.”
Asked of the health infrastructure put in place for women and children within the various IDP locations in Abuja, the head of Public Relations Unit, FEMA, Josie Mudasiru, said there is no health infrastructure on ground for the IDPS because they are squatting on land belonging to private Nigerians.
“We only have arrangements with health secretariat and various NGOs to visit with doctors who attend to their health needs. Arrangement is also on with government hospitals to attend to pregnant women”, she further said.
The Agony of malnourished children
A sight is quite familiar in most of the IDP locations visited: children with stunted growth and brown coloured hair. This is not only linked to the fact that many of the IDPs rely on handouts from individuals to survive but also traced to the tortuous journey of escape for survival.
Naheema Suleiman, 30, lost a 15- year- old daughter in Sambisa Forest when she was trying to escape from Boko-Haram members who threatened to marry young women in her town. Also a Gwoza indigene, she is one of the IDPs in Karmajiji Tudun Muntsira where 56 households and a total of over 248 displaced persons are trying to eke out a living.
She told the grim tales of how small children were fed at the time they were fleeing their hometown.
“We packed Tuwo grains and mix it with water to make it appear like a pap and put in pet bottles. When we are on the road and the children begin to cry for food, we will give them to drink. When we reached Cameroun, they did not help us; they were chasing us away to the camp. Even if a child’s pant is wet and you want it to dry, they will ask you to remove it from the line. They told us not to put bombs in their place.
“From there, those who had money were able to go get a vehicle to Yola. Those who had no money were forced to the Cameroun IDP camp where there is no food and children were falling sick and suffering. Some children fell sick on the road and some women died. A woman had to give birth on the road. We could not stay at the IDP camp in Cameroun because we heard there are no food and children were falling sick and suffering.”
At the Kuchingoro camp, the reporter met with Chonfilawos Danladi and Luku John, both 11 years old Primary 3 pupils of a school donated by an NGO in their camp. They confessed to not eating breakfast, but relying on the free food served to them during break time.
Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor, the Director of Consulting Services at EpiAfric, an organization involved in public health has worked in proving free medical services to displaced women and children in some IDP camps in the FCT.
His take on the health status of some of the children he has encountered: “Most children who were brought to the clinic showed physical signs of malnutrition, including stunted growth with signs of failure to thrive. The common complaints included abdominal pains, cough, catarrh and fever. The poor sanitation within the camp exposes all residents to infectious diseases. The rains also worsen the already poor sanitation within the camp and an outbreak of an infectious disease is just in the offing.”
Continuing, he said; “The pregnant women the volunteers saw have never attended antenatal clinics; one was in her 8th month of pregnancy. Most children had not been immunized and could acquire any of the vaccine-preventable diseases,” he submitted.
School without walls; emergency education for displaced children
IDP children at Kuchingoro
The bell tolled and the children swiftly move to form the assembly lines at the new Kuchingoro Camp. It was a sobering scene: some luck to get uniforms, while others wore dust-coloured house wears with feet adorned with slippers. Their faces were caked with Harmattan dust and a woman helped with cleaning their running nose with tissue. The reporter later learnt that she is the school nurse.
“We want to enforce some hygienic disciplines, but we don’t always have the water,” an anonymous source in the school confided in the reporter. Despite the obvious challenges, the children there are far better in terms of education than the other locations visited.
The school without walls is an initiative of Life Builders, an NGO coordinated by a management consultant and pastor, Sanwo Olatunji David. He confessed to being moved by the plight of the children who were not attending school when he visited them in 2013 for evangelism in the company of his wife. The school operates in two settlements of the IDPs in Kuchingoro.
“For the past 10 years, I fly business class or first class whenever I travelled overseas, but since the start of Life Builders, I now fly economy. It is not comfortable, but it is worth it when you see what your money does for the children,” he enthused.
The school, which caters to the educational needs of over 600 IDP children also provides feeding once a day for them. It has permanent teachers, three of whom are IDPs who were teaching in schools in their native state.
“It is capital-intensive, but you have to feed the children because if they don’t eat, they won’t be able to concentrate in class. It is like helping yourself because they could go round and become robbers to hurt you in the future”, the director of the project, Pastor David reasoned.
For many of the children who could not cope at the secondary level, the foundation is planning a vocational centre where they can learn skills in tailoring, welding, fish farming, carpentry and brick making, with which they would be able to use to sustain themselves when they return to their hometown after Boko-Haram had been conquered.
The NGO, it was learnt, also pay school fees for over 200 students in other IDP settlement in Nasarawa state. It is a huge project and the director said the organization is working on a sustainability plan of funding the project by organizing a stakeholders’ forum in February.
“ A good number of people have supported with books, school uniforms, but you can’t plan with it because it is not regular. The project has gotten to a point of no return. It is not like the days when we just started when I have to drive the car and my wife has to cook the food and my daughter who us an architect would also join in teaching the children. We were doing it alone until the number of the children got to a point where we had to call on God to raise our finances so could employ other people”, Pastor David submitted.
Cordelia Nyamsi, the proprietress of Golden Lamb Christian School, who volunteered to teach displaced children described her experience so far. “The experience has been challenging because of their background and the trauma they had been through. They are used to being taught in Hausa, so many of them don’t understand English; so the language is a barrier. Any time I teach and they respond, it gives me more reason to stay here.”
A teacher in the secondary section of the school, Sake Abdulahi, who left his local government in Bauchi due to delayed salaries, also shared his experience with the children:
“When we started this school, if you call one of the IDP children and say come, unless you use a sign language, they would run. But now, they can now actually understand the difference between come and go in English. They are assimilating knowledge and we are enjoying them.”
An estimated one million children have been forced out of school as a result of a violent attack by Boko-Haram, according to a United Nations report. Many of these children are cut off from education, but there is a semblance of educational of support for IDP children in Kuchngoro through the effort of one man who chose to see things differently. Unfortunately, other locations are not as lucky as the government schools where kids could be registered are located at far distances, out of the reach of the IDPs.
People without identity
To a large extent, IDPs in various settlements around Abuja are left on their own with no government help or recognition, a situation which further subjects them to poverty and squalor.
The Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Muhammad Sani Sidi, declared that there is no recognized internally displaced person camp in the FCT, urging those claiming to be IDPs in Abuja on account of insurgency to go back to their states and get registered.
However, Dr Allen Manasseh, a humanitarian agent and director with End of Violence And Restoration Our Ancestral Home Organisation, EVRAH disagrees. Manasseh, a native of Chibok who had worked to profile and assist IDPs both in government recognized camps and host community camps said:
“Anyone that is saying they have no business being here (Abuja) should recover their homes for them and let them return. Do you think they are happy being here sleeping on mats and eating from handouts? They have been fending for themselves all their lives from their villages and farms.
“Today, if their territories are safe, they are happy to go back. Is Gwoza accessible up till date? Where do they want them to go? Bama is not accessible if not in full military movement. Let us see the apparatus of government in shape in all the recovered territories and all will return willingly. Government is not managing any IDP camp in Abuja, the IDPs are at the mercies of ordinary Nigerians and NGOS,” he submitted.
At the back end of a makeshift tent in an IDP settlement at Kuchingoro, two toddlers, excluded from the school crowd, sit on the bare floor. With mucus running down their nose and dust caked feet; they relish loaf of dry bread. They had survived the terrors of war, but now their future lies bleak and undecided.
This is the first part of a two part -series supported with funds by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Abuja through the ACCESS Nigeria Project.
A 63-year-old man, Aniefiok Bassey, appeared in a Kado Grade 1 Area Court, FCT, for alleged breach of trust and cheating.
Bassey, who resides in Mpape, FCT, pleaded not guilty to the all the charges leveled against him.
The Prosecutor, Judith Obatomi, told the court that one Nsuka Sunday of Area A, Nyanya, Abuja, reported the matter at Utako Police Station on Feb.2.
Obatomi said that the complainant lost his father, named Sunday Akpan, who before his demise was a Staff of the FCTA.
According to her, the deceased family trusted the defendant to obtain a letter of administration from the court in his name to enable them process the death benefits which he did.
She further said that after receiving the letter of administration, the defendant took it to Unity Bank where the salary of the deceased was domiciled and N436, 000 was paid to him.
Obatomi said that the defendant converted the money to his personal use without the consent of the family.
She added that the defendant was also seen with a letter to the court asking to pay the benefit of the deceased into his personal account.
The prosecutor said the offence contravened Section 312 and 322 of the Penal Code.
The judge, Malam Abubakar Sadiq, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N100,000 and a surety in like sum.
Sadiq said that the surety must be a civil servant on grade level seven, and adjourned the matter till April 7 for further hearing.
The Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) FCT chapter, has suspended its three-day warning strike which began on Monday across the six area councils.
Mr. Terry Isaac, the NULGE Secretary, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
Isaac said that the union decided to suspend the strike after a meeting with the FCT Permanent Secretary.
He said that the FCT administration agreed to pay the three months salary arrears it owed the area councils’ workers before the end of next week.
“The management promised to pay one month salary within the week.
“But we are of the opinion that they pay the three months together before the end of next week which they agreed.
“We have endured for three months and we did not die and I believe we will not die before the end of next week.
“My advice to the workers is that we should give them the benefit of the doubt and resume work from Tuesday,’’ he said.
The secretary also said that failure to honour the agreement would lead to the union going on an indefinite strike.
FCT Minister Muhammad Bello has charged medical and health workers to remain on red alert to nip in the bud any suspected case of Lassa fever.
Bello gave the directive in a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Minister, Mr Hamzat Sule, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The statement said that the directive was a follow up to earlier tips on how to prevent the spread of the disease.
It recalled that the lone case in the territory was that of a man on transit.
“But the FCT Administration will not leave anything to chance on the lives and well-being of all the residents and visitors, as this is paramount to this administration.’’
The minister, therefore, directed the FCT Disease Control and Disease Surveillance Department to endeavour to be on top of any eventuality that might arise.
The statement said that he also instructed the Notification Officers in all the six area councils to be on high alert by stepping up disease surveillance activities within their various localities, especially at the border communities.
He emphasised that all the nooks and crannies of the 8,000 sq. kms. of the territory must be well policed, to deal with any case at a very short notice.
“The Heads of Health Departments in the area councils are equally directed to further step up sensitisation activities in the communities – markets, motor parks, churches and mosques,” the statement added.
Bello further urged the health workers to be proactive in their approach in order to avoid the unfortunate incident that led to the death of the transit victim.
The statement said that the minister also adviced residents of the territory to imbibe the habit of a clean environment, to ward off all rodents from their houses.
“Hygienic practices will go a long way in curbing not only Lassa fever but also other diseases associated with dirty environment,” the statement said
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Indigenous Women Forum, under the aegis of GBAKKA, has called on the Federal Government to give the FCT indigenes a ministerial slot.
GBAKKA is an acronym for the six area councils of Gwagwalada, Bwari, Kuje Kwali and Abuja Municipal.
President of GBAKKA, Mrs. Rifkatu Chidawa made the call during a visit by some members to the secretariat of the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) Abuja.
Chidawa said there was need for Abuja indigenes to have a say and presence in the Federal Executive Cabinet like the other 36 states, adding that the indigenes have educated and qualified professionals that can occupy positions in government.
She also called on the members of the National Assembly to review the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which will enable the people of the FCT have equal rights and be recognised as a state.
“We are calling on the Federal Government that indigenes who are equally Nigerians should be given what is our right. We are citizens that have sacrificed so much for the growth and peace of this great nation.
“Being women of the FCT indigenes and knowing that women dialogue, we are using this forum to press for our demands.
“We want to be carried along and have a sense of belonging. We also add our voice to our people’s agitation and clamour for the Abuja people to have a say and presence in the Federal Executive Council like other states in Nigeria.
Our lands are our oil wells. Our fathers and mothers before us bequeathed to us our ancestral land in furtherance of nationhood. Giving up one’s land to one’s country is the greatest price to pay by any citizen.
“Abuja is bigger than seven states in terms of landmass and bigger in population than four states. It is estimated that about 4.5 million people live in Abuja, yet the inhabitants have no say in governance of this country.
“As good as the All Progressives Congress (APC) government is, we say that the change will not be complete as long as indigenous people remain helpless, voiceless and their constitutional rights denied them,” she said.
Nigeria’s Ambassador to Gambia and member of the group, Hon. Mrs. Esther John Audu also urged the Federal Government to consider the people of the FCT by providing a ministerial slot for them.
“I expect consideration, justice and fairness to the indigenes of the FCT so that they can have equal rights as other Nigerians have.
“The indigenes are people that have sacrificed a lot for the existence of the nation’s capital and development of our country Nigeria.
“I call on all women to develop the talent God has given to them and make themselves available to serve the country when the need arises and do the best they can for their immediate families and the society.
“A nation state cannot develop if a group of people are marginalised and their rights denied them,” she said.
The President of NCWS, Mrs. Nkechi Okemiri Mba assured the FCT Indigenous Women Forum that their yearnings and agitation would be forwarded to the First Lady of the Federal Republic whom is the Grand Patron for Nigerian women.
She commended the women for their peaceful agitation for a ministerial slot, assuring them that their demands would be given adequate consideration.
Mba said: “I am very grateful with the visit and I am assuring you that your request will be granted.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command said it had arrested six robbery suspects who specialised in attacking and robbing people of cell phones and money.
The Public Relations Officer of the command, ASP Anjuguri Manzah, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
Manzah said that the suspects were arrested in separate operations in Mabushi, Nyanya and Wuye divisions by operatives of the command.
He said that the suspects would be charged to court on completion of investigation
He said that the FCT Commissioner of Police, Wilson Inalegwu, had directed all Divisional Police Officers and Area Commanders in the territory to ensure adequate security during the Yuletide.
The Police Spokesman called on residents of the territory to assist the police by volunteering useful information that could lead to the arrest of criminals.
“Residents of the territory should help the police by reporting suspicious movements in their neighbourhood, “ he said.
It would be recalled that the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, had directed Command Commissioners of Police to personally ensure adequate security during the Yuletide.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Muhammad Bello has promised to prioritise the Abuja Rail Mass Transit projects of the administration. Bello assured that he would do everything possible to fast-track the completion of the project, considering the relief it would bring to commuters in and around Abuja.
Deputy Director/Chief Press Secretary FCT Muhammad Sule made it known in a press statement and said that the minister stated this when he visited the project sites at the Airport, Wupa, Idu and Ring Road II Stations, which forms part of his familiarization tour of projects and facilities in the FCT. He also added, “He remarked that the FCT Administration would support any project that would have positive impact on the lives of the common man especially as this would go a long way in reducing traffic congestion in Abuja.
“The Minister expressed satisfaction with the quality of the job done so far, but however charged the contractors (CCECC Nigeria Limited) to redouble their efforts in delivering the job on schedule. “Malam Bello reiterated that everything must be done to ease movement, particularly public transportation in the city to make it at par with other modern cities around the world.
“His words: “This is a very important project for the residents of the Federal Capital Territory and everything would be done to see to its early completion because of its utmost benefit”.
“The Managing Director of CCECC Nigeria Limited, Mr. Li Quigyong who led the Minister and his entourage round the sites remarked that his company takes the project with seriousness and would do all it takes to complete it.”
The FCT Police Command said it had commenced investigation into the death of a teenage hawker in the territory.
The FCT Police Commissioner, Mr Wilson Inalegwu, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
It would be recalled that a teenage hawker lost his life on Nov. 13 after scaling a bridge around Bolingo Hotel, Abuja, while allegedly evading arrest by officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB).
Inalegwu said that some arrests had been made and investigation was ongoing.
“We are investigating that case, we have made arrest and we are trying to narrow it down to whoever is responsible for that.
“We are investigating, that is all that I can say. We are very much aware of that case,” he said.
Inalegwu said that officials of the board had been advised to be evenhanded while carrying out their duties.
“We have told them to be evenhanded and told the management to deal with any staff that is overexcited,” he said.
He also appealed to FCT residents to show understanding by obeying the law against hawking in the territory.
“But we also appeal to FCT residents to show understanding by not engaging in street hawking.
“If everybody is allowed to hawk on the street the traffic will not flow and we will begin to have traffic robbers.
“Experience has shown that this hawkers metamorphosis at night to use same locations when you stop at traffic to rob you at night.
The commissioner said that Abuja is a cosmopolitan city and the standard should not be so lowered as to encourage criminality.
The management of the board had denied being responsible for the death of the hawker.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command said it had tightened security at motor parks, hotels and other strategic places in the territory, ahead of the Christmas celebration.
The Commissioner of Police for the territory, Mr. Wilson Inalegwu, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
Inalegwu said that the Inspector-General of Police’s directive to all Commands to ensure effective security, further reinforced the measure taken by his command.
“We have taken steps to heighten security across the FCT; there are visible police deployments at all the motor parks in the FCT.
“In addition, we have encouraged the transport unions and the luxury bus owners to also have their own internal security arrangements which we supervise and guide them,“he said.
Inalegwu said that the command had deployed officers to hotels considered very strategic to the FCT.
“We have deployed officers for hotel security coordination and we have also made additional deployment to most critical hotels that we consider very strategic to the FCT,” the commissioner said.
He said that the ‘Safer Highways ‘had been fully deployed and mobilised with well motivated personnel.
“One other thing we are doing is sustaining raids on suspected criminal hotspots where we have made important breakthroughs and arrests through, “he said.
The Commissioner also said that the relationship between the police and communities was enhancing the command’s operations.
He restated the command’s readiness to continue to collaborate with other security agencies to ensure security in the FCT.
“We will continue to strategise with other security agencies to secure the territory.
“ We have also collaborated with communities in this area. We have had a lot of engagements with the Churches,“ he said.
“Security is about partnership, we have also circulated our help lines to the public,“ he said.
He urged the media to help make the help lines available to residents.
Inalegwu advised residents to be careful while receiving gift items during the yuletide.
“Don’t get careless when you are going to the Church or Mosque, ensure that all bags are searched.
“Pregnant women should be screened thoroughly to ensure that the pregnancy is not fake,“ he said.
