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FCTA removes 607 beggars, mentally challenged persons from Abuja streets
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The Federal Capital Territory Administration has removed 607 beggars and mentally challenged persons from the streets of Abuja from July 2025 to date.
The Head of Enforcement at the FCT Social Development Secretariat, Mrs Ukachi Adebayo, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Monday.
Adebayo said the exercise was carried out by the Operation Sweep Abuja Clean team.
She explained that “out of the 607 persons evacuated, 583 were beggars while 23 were mentally challenged individuals.”
She added that the beggars and mentally challenged persons had been counselled, profiled and returned to their various states in collaboration with state governments through their liaison offices.
“What we do when we apprehend the beggars and mentally challenged individuals is to counsel them so as to profile them.
“After that, we take them to their various liaison offices to be returned to their respective states, where they are expected to undergo rehabilitation,” she said.
Noting that the beggars and mentally challenged persons often return to the streets after evacuation, Adebayo said the operation was ongoing and would continue.
She said, “The more you take them out, the more they resurface.
“Some of them were driven by insecurity in their states and ran to Abuja to take refuge, but we will continue to apprehend them and take them back.”
Similarly, Acting Director of Social Welfare at the SDS, Mrs Gloria Onwuka, said some of the children begging on the streets were brought in from other states by unidentified individuals to beg and hand over the proceeds to them.
Onwuka added that some of the women caught begging with children were not the children’s biological mothers.
“Begging is now run like a business. People will go and hire people’s children from other states, put them in vehicles very early in the morning, come to Abuja and start begging.
“The families they are hiring these children from don’t even know that this is what their children are being used for.
“We have caught so many of them like that,” she said.
Also, the Secretary of the FCTA Command and Control Centre, Dr Peter Olumuji, explained that Operation Sweep was a joint security operation involving all relevant security agencies and FCT secretariats, departments and agencies.
Olumuji told NAN that the operation was instituted by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to rid Abuja of miscreants, street beggars, scavengers and other criminal elements.
He pointed out that beggars pose security threats and constitute a nuisance in the city, adding that some of them serve as informants to criminals.
“Not only that, the beggars and mentally challenged individuals also deface the beauty of the capital city, while some of them become victims of kidnapping for rituals and other negative purposes,” he said.
He added that the operation was ongoing and would continue to crack down on beggars, miscreants and other criminal elements wherever they resurfaced.
NAN recalls that Wike, in October 2024, declared war on beggars defacing Abuja and posing security risks.
The minister explained that the move was necessary over concerns that Abuja was turning into a beggars’ city.
“Let me say clearly now, we have declared war on beggars because Abuja is returning to a beggars’ city.
“If you know you have a sister or a brother who is a beggar on the road, do something, because from next week, we will carry them; we will take them out of the city.
“It is embarrassing that people who come into Abuja, the first thing they see are just beggars on the road,” he said.
Wike further said that some supposed beggars might not be beggars but criminals pretending to be beggars.
“We will not allow that,” he said.
He explained that the move was to ensure maximum security so that residents could sleep with their two eyes closed.
(NAN)
President Bola Tinubu has endorsed the immediate dismantling of the Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC) on the Alienation of Federal Government Properties.
The president directed that all matters relating to the activities of the Committee will henceforth be coordinated by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
On March 22, 2001, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the establishment of a panel of inquiry to produce a White Paper to guide the implementation of its recommendations.
The panel worked for 21 months before submitting its report.
The presidency, in a statement by Tinubu’s media aide, Bayo Onanuga, after careful consideration, the government had noted that the activities of the PIC had extended beyond its original mandate, resulting in multiple litigations across the country, and the continued existence of the committee was no longer justified.
“Accordingly, the President directed the dissolution of the PIC and that the Attorney General of the Federation coordinate its activities with effect from November 5, 2025.
“Following the President’s directive, the PIC stands dissolved, and the erstwhile Secretary, B. S. Dutsin-Ma, is hereby further directed to cease acting on behalf of the committee and the Federal Government on related matters.
The PIC was established in 2000 during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to oversee the privatisation, sale, and lease of Federal Government landed assets under the government’s monetisation policy.
Its membership comprised the then Minister of Housing as chairperson, alongside representatives from the ministries of transportation, justice, health, agriculture, and the Nigeria Police Force.
Then a Deputy Director in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, P. T. Ahire, served as the pioneer Secretary.
Other members were drawn from both the public and private sectors.
The Secretary to the Osun State Government, Teslim Igbalaiye, has finally regained freedom after being released by the Osun State Police Command.
Igbalaiye’s release was announced by the spokesperson for the Imole Campaign Council, the campaign organisation for Governor Ademola Adeleke’s re-election bid, Pelumi Olajengbesi.
Olajengbesi disclosed the development in a post on his verified Facebook page on Thursday.
He expressed appreciation to the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, Osun State Command, for responding to public calls and facilitating the release of the SSG following what he described as an unlawful arrest.
Olajengbesi stated that the Nigeria Police Force serves the nation best when it upholds justice, the rule of law and resists oppression.
He also welcomed Igbalaiye back, describing his release as a victory, and commended what he called the SSG’s courage and sacrifice for the people of Osun State.
A High Court in Kano State has sentenced a newlywed woman, Saudat Jibril, to death by hanging after finding her guilty of killing her husband, Salisu Idris, just nine days after their wedding.
The verdict followed the conclusion of the trial, during which the court heard evidence presented by both the prosecution and the defence.
The incident occurred in May 2025 in Farawa, a community in Kumbotso Local Government Area of Kano State, where the couple had been married for only nine days before the husband was killed.
The prosecution, led by Barrister Lamido Abba Soron Dinki, counsel to the Kano State Government, called three witnesses in support of its case.
The defence counsel, Barrister Abdulfatah Muhammad, presented Saudat Jibril as the sole witness in her defence.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Maryam Sabo held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and accepted the evidence presented by the prosecution while rejecting the defendant’s testimony.
“The court finds the defendant guilty as charged and hereby sentences her to death by hanging,” Justice Sabo ruled.
Following the judgment, correctional service officials escorted Saudat Jibril from the courtroom to begin serving her sentence, pending any appeal.
Tinubu dismantles Presidential C’ttee on federal properties with immediate effect
Just in: Osun SSG finally regains freedom
Kano newlywed woman gets death sentence for killing husband nine days after marriage
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