Extend clampdown on beggars to one chance robbers, activists urge Wike

As clamp down on beggars in the FCT continues, a cross section of residents has charged the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to extend the operation to the gangs of thugs operating as one chance robbers, who they said are more dangerous. City & Crime reports that a taskforce inaugurated by the minister to enforce sanity […]

As clamp down on beggars in the FCT continues, a cross section of residents has charged the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to extend the operation to the gangs of thugs operating as one chance robbers, who they said are more dangerous.

City & Crime reports that a taskforce inaugurated by the minister to enforce sanity in the city and its environs, have arrested many beggars, scavengers, as well as destitutes.

 The operation, which is in its second week now, had forced many of them to go into hiding, with some of them returning to their states of origin.

However, some activists, while reacting to the exercise, demanded that the taskforce, which moves in about 20 vehicles, majority of whom security operatives, should be mandated to also sanitise the city of these thugs.

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An Abuja based human rights activist, Comrade Nura Muktar, said residents were more disturbed with the said gangs’ activities that operate along the express ways that leads to Kubwa, Gwagwalada and Nyanya, from the city centre.

He said, ‘’Many lives were lost through their operations while others escaped with life threatening injuries. I think the minister should also extend his operation against them.’’

 Another activist, Salihu Dantata, said agberos are also making life miserable for both drivers and civil servants, who decided to carry few passengers in their vehicles in order to be able to buy fuel.

“At times, some of the passengers are even your family members that you want to drop along the way, but these boys would just jump into your vehicle, and seize the key. “The minister should rid them out of the city as their numbers keep rising by the day,’’ Dantata lamented.