By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) joint city enforcement team at the weekend raided some notorious spots suspected to be hideouts for illicit drug dealers and other environmental nuisances.
This is in continuation of the administration’s city sanitation enforcement against refuse littering, illegal markets, auto mechanic workshops and motor parks.
Leader of the team and secretary, FCTA command and control, Peter Olumuji after the operation around the popular AYA roundabout and environs, in Asokoro District, said the administration was committed to Keep the city safe and clean for the residents.
The team, also extended the clean up operation to Court of Appeal junction through Federal Secretariat complex, Eagle Square and Nicon Junction axis of Shehu Shagari Way.
Olumuji warned that henceforth, the FCTA is letting all those who have criminal tendencies in the city to know that they should change or better relocate to wherever they are coming from, because the city would not be conducive for them, as the enforcement is continuous.
He stated that through credible intelligence from security agencies, the team bursted a criminal hideout around Asokoro, where illicit drugs were recovered and criminal elements that attack people traversing the area, especially in the nighttime were dislodged.
According to him: “We have been able to dislodged where they normally reside, and that is a good development to those traversing around the place especially in the nighttime.
“We had gotten reports that people are being attacked whenever they are traversing this environment. But with the action that we have taken now, such criminal activities here have been reduced to the bearest minimum, which we hope to sustain.”
On arrest, he said: “For now, we were not able to make any arrest, because when we entered there, most of them had escaped.
Similarly, the Deputy Director, Monitoring and Enforcement, (AEPB) Kaka Bello noted that the whole effort is to see that the city is clean and safe for the inhabitants.
He, however lamented that environmental and sundry nuisances were increasing, which necessitate relevant security agencies with the administration andvsome Stakeholders to conceived the strategy.
He said: “AYA is one of the notorious places where we encounter a lot of challenges whenever we come for such cleaning exercise, given the rate of nuisance here, which have been abated. And the illicit drug related offences that were apprehended by the NDLEA officers.
“They are all interwoven, and we are working together with other agencies to make sure that we abate such nuisances. And it is a daily thing, which we would continue to do, as the city must be clean on a daily basis.”
On her part, Deputy Director, Operations, DRTS, Deborah Osho, who described the exercise as a success, disclosed that about eleven vehicles were impounded and towed from illegal parks and mechanic workshops, with seven tricycles confiscated for alleged route violation.
“We are poised to clean the city, in order to make the city safe and give its befitting name” she said.
