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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)

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The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, has said that the 52 suspects taken into custody during the recent protests in Ekpoma, Edo State, were arrested for looting and vandalism.

In a video posted on the Force X handle, the police boss dismissed reports that the suspects were arrested during peaceful protests in the state.

“In Ekpoma, yes, 52 of them were arrested during the protest, and those 52, from the report coming to me, are those people who were involved in the looting of shops and the vandalising of the palace of the Enogie of Ekpoma,” Egbetokun said.

He lamented that the police were frequently blamed for incidents of violence that occurred under the cover of protests.

Egbetokun said the police are not against peaceful demonstrations and would continue to protect citizens who choose to protest lawfully.

The IGP said, “That’s the usual false narrative against the police. When people have committed criminal offences during protests, we are used to narratives that the police arrested peaceful protesters.

Desmond: The police are being alleged of arresting innocent Nigerians [in Ekpoma]. Is the IG aware of this?

“Even those who burnt down police stations, murdered policemen, stole our arms during protests, Nigerians will accuse us that we are arresting people who are on peaceful protest.

“In the case of Ekpoma, of course, the police will not go after anybody who participated in a peaceful protest. We are not against peaceful protest.

“We have made this clear many times and we continue to say it, that the police will not stop anybody who comes out for peaceful protest. If you want to come out for peaceful protest, what’s our business? We will protect you.”

He, however, said the police would not tolerate criminality under the cover of protests.

“Peaceful protest is not a challenge to the police. It is those people who want to perpetrate crime, carry out violence, destroy property and loot shops during protest. Those are the ones we have problems with.

“That was the report I have, not arrest and detention of peaceful protesters. No. That’s the usual wrong narrative that we are used to in Nigeria. So I debunk that,” Egbetokun added.

Recall Residents of Ekpoma and neighbouring communities had taken to the streets to protest the rising cases of kidnapping in the area, marching through major roads with placards and calling for government intervention.

The protests, however, turned violent on January 10, leading to vandalism and looting of shops and other properties, resulting in demonstrators, including students of Ambrose Alli University (AAU), being taken into custody.

Thereafter, a Federal High Court in Edo state remanded 52 protesters over alleged malicious damage and armed robbery following a protest against kidnapping in Ekpoma, Esan West LGA.

The AAU students remanded in connection with 52 Suspects Arrested In Ekpoma For Looting, Vandalism — IGP
Residents of Ekpoma and neighbouring communities had taken to the streets to protest the rising cases of kidnapping in the area.

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, has said that the 52 suspects taken into custody during the recent protests in Ekpoma, Edo State, were arrested for looting and vandalism.

In a video posted on the Force X handle, the police boss dismissed reports that the suspects were arrested during peaceful protests in the state.

“In Ekpoma, yes, 52 of them were arrested during the protest, and those 52, from the report coming to me, are those people who were involved in the looting of shops and the vandalising of the palace of the Enogie of Ekpoma,” Egbetokun said.

He lamented that the police were frequently blamed for incidents of violence that occurred under the cover of protests.

Egbetokun said the police are not against peaceful demonstrations and would continue to protect citizens who choose to protest lawfully.

The IGP said, “That’s the usual false narrative against the police. When people have committed criminal offences during protests, we are used to narratives that the police arrested peaceful protesters.

Desmond: The police are being alleged of arresting innocent Nigerians [in Ekpoma]. Is the IG aware of this?

“Even those who burnt down police stations, murdered policemen, stole our arms during protests, Nigerians will accuse us that we are arresting people who are on peaceful protest.

“In the case of Ekpoma, of course, the police will not go after anybody who participated in a peaceful protest. We are not against peaceful protest.

“We have made this clear many times and we continue to say it, that the police will not stop anybody who comes out for peaceful protest. If you want to come out for peaceful protest, what’s our business? We will protect you.”

He, however, said the police would not tolerate criminality under the cover of protests.

“Peaceful protest is not a challenge to the police. It is those people who want to perpetrate crime, carry out violence, destroy property and loot shops during protest. Those are the ones we have problems with.

“That was the report I have, not arrest and detention of peaceful protesters. No. That’s the usual wrong narrative that we are used to in Nigeria. So I debunk that,” Egbetokun added.

The AAU students remanded in connection with protest have since been released.

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There was panic in some motor parks across Osogbo metropolis, Osun State, on Sunday following the killing of a former unit chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Kazeem Oyewole, by yet-to-be-identified hoodlums.

Oyewole, who served as the part-time chairman of the Aregbe Unit of the NURTW between 2018 and 2022, was reportedly attacked and killed in the afternoon around Elelede Junction in Osogbo.

A resident of the area, who spoke to The PUNCH on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the assailants had earlier mounted a base at Elelede Junction, where they were allegedly extorting money from passersby under the guise of raising funds for a carnival.

The source said trouble started when a motorcycle carrying two passengers arrived at the scene.

“Those hoodlums forced the two passengers to disembark and started fighting them. I later heard gunshots. One of the two people was later identified as Kazeem,” the resident said.

According to the eyewitness, the attackers later used large stones to smash Oyewole’s head, killing him on the spot, while the second passenger escaped with injuries.

“After the incident, the hoodlums fled before the police arrived at the scene,” the resident added.

A shop owner at Elelede Junction, identified simply as Basira, said panic forced businesses in the area to shut down abruptly.

“Few shops that opened for business had to close immediately the crisis started. NURTW members who later came identified the victim as Kazeem Oyewole, a former part-time chairman of a unit along the Osogbo–Gbongan road in Aregbe area,” she said.

A visit by The PUNCH to Old Garage and Aregbe motor parks on Sunday evening showed reduced human activity, as commuters and traders avoided the parks over fear of further violence. Some hoodlums were also seen loitering around the parks.

Confirming the incident, the Osun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Ojelabi, said one person was killed in the attack.

“We are aware of the incident that happened at Orita Elelede in Osogbo. Our men were deployed immediately information got to us, but unfortunately, one person was confirmed dead. He was identified as Kazeem. Other name unknown. Investigation has commenced,” Ojelabi said.

On security measures around motor parks, the police spokesperson said the situation was being monitored to prevent escalation.

“We are still monitoring the situation and will continue to monitor the motor parks for now,” he added.

The incident comes barely two months after another NURTW leader, Adeboye Ademoroti, was shot dead by unknown gunmen in Ilesa on November 27, 2025.

At the time, security sources told PUNCH Metro that Ademoroti and another person were attacked by assailants in the Olomilagbala area of Ilesa, though the circumstances surrounding the killing remained unclear.