Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has vowed to deal with bandits and kidnappers terrorising the nation’s capital.
This is as he commenced confidence-building visits to Area Councils in the Territory, declaring that security agencies would henceforth make it hot for bandits.
Wike, who visited Bwari town, headquarters of Bwari Area Council, held a town hall meeting with the residents, traditional rulers, security, defence and intelligence personnel in the area and other stakeholders. He is expected to also visit other Councils in the coming days.
At the event, Wike declared that enough was enough and that informants working for the bandits would no longer be able to sleep among decent residents.
According to him; “Security is one of the key priorities of Mr. President’s administration. Yesterday (Tuesday), Mr. President summoned a high-level security meeting, which includes all the Service Chiefs, the Minister of Defence, and my humble self, because of recent attacks, particularly in Bwari. And so, currently, it is one of the key priorities that Mr. President’s ‘Renewed Hope’ agenda will want to face squarely.
He said, “It is no longer going to be business as usual. My coming here today is to show you that we are serious. To all those bandits, enough is enough. We will do everything in our power to make sure that this does not happen again.
“Everything has to be done to protect lives and property. Without protection of lives and property, then we have no business in government. My coming here today is to assure you that we are very serious. All those criminals, bandits, enough is enough. We will do everything in our power to make sure that we will not allow this to happen again.
“Security agencies will not have any reason to say that they are not equipped; we will provide everything required. I know how big Bwari is; I know that you have boundaries with three States – Niger, Kaduna and Nasarawa. I know, because these bandits were chased away from the North-East; so they are making their way here. We will make it hot for them”.
Wike also sought the assistance of the people especially with regards to providing information to security agencies, and advised the public against resorting to crowd-funding in a bid to raise funds for ransom, saying it helps terrorists to launch more attacks.
Earlier, Chairman of the Bwari Area Council, John Gabaya, recalled that in the week leading to last Christmas, kidnappers violently attacked the peaceful agrarian community of Tokulo seriously injuring a number of residents and abducting some of the villagers. He solicited the help of the minister in providing the needed logistics to security agencies in tackling the security challenges, including vehicles, motorcycles and regular fuelling of the vehicles for optimum results.
