*Suggests ways to restore security in FCT
*Calls for profiling of tenants by landlords to track criminals
By Stellamaries Amuwa
The Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the National Assembly, Sen. Ireti Kingibe has blammed the Minister of the FCT, Barr. Nyesom Wike for the festering insecurity in the territory.
According to her, Wike still feels he is operating at the state level where he as governor was the all and all and so dictates everything, she said on Channels Sunday Politics programme.
“When I raised the problem of insecurity at Mpape, they said I was raising red herring. Now, they have found out I wasn’t exegerating; the evil is here with us.
“The Minister feels that Sen. Philip Aduda is still the Senator representing the FCT and so he doesn’t listen to me. I have sent requests for appoints to see him and written severql letters to him, but never received a reply from him, she said.
Sen Kingibe stressed the need for better monitoring of the borders to the FCT, stressing that crininality is worse at the fringe communities bothering other states to the FCT.
She also noted that IDP camps should be better constructed with perimeter fence to prevent miscreants creeping into those places to take residence as is the case at the moment, streaaing that just demolishing shanty towns are not good enough.
She also expressed worry that a large number of police officers are deployed to protect the VIPs, saying that the greater majority of Nigerians are left without any form of formal security, paving way for non-state actors to seize the space and wreck havoc on Nigerians.
“I dare say that about a quarter of the police force protect the VIPs which I believe is not good enough. We have Agro-Rangers and other who carry arms, but they are not well managed in their aggregate, to provide adequate security for the citizenry.
“We need more and better organised community policing and more regular policing across the FCT, not the check points they dismantle by 10am, but serious policing of the rural communities through intelligence driven processes.
“People want to provide information to the security but they need security presence to avail them of such information and mind you, when people provide information and the security do nothing until it gets out of hand, such people get frustrated.
“We also need a more efficient and coordinated transportation system to curtail what some criminal-minded people do in that sector,” she added.
She also opined that as part of improving security in the FCT, people need to be identified properly and in an efficient manner theough the possession of National Identity cards for better security.
She proposed a more robust interactive session with the Abuja residents and natived, different from the Town Hall meetingd the Minister had.
“We have, not just the Indigenous People, but now we have more non-indigenes who stay in these satellite regions of the FCT where we have serious decurity concerns, so we can listen to people and hear what they want government to do in the next four years.
“But I believe thst the way to go is monitoring the communities through the vigilantes which I believe is well coordinated and managed at the moment.
Asked about the failed CCTV Camera contract in FCT, Kingigbe said the National Assembly Committee on FCT are going to insist on getting to the root of that project.
