INSECURITY: FCTA’S ‘OPERATION SWEEP ABUJA’ ARRESTS OVER 200 BEGGARS

By: Wisdom Acka

To strengthen security in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), authorities of the FCT Administration have arrested no fewer than 210 beggars across the City Centre.

Acting Director, Department of Social Welfare in the Social Department Secretariat, Gloria Onwuka, made this disclosure while speaking to journalists on Thursday, 10th July, 2025 in Abuja.

Onwuka stated that the continuous exercise, which commenced on Monday, has so far picked 80 males, 58 females, and 72 child beggars across the streets of the nation’s capital.

According to the Acting Director, the FCT Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike, has ordered the exercise as a security measure to rid the city of remnants of security incidents such as “one-chance” robbery and kidnapping, among other criminal activities.

On why child begging is a security risk, the Acting Director explained that her office has discovered, following raids, that most of the children are hired by the women for begging, as a strategy to win the sympathy of the unsuspecting public.

She stressed that, some of the so-called beggars are criminals, using both the real beggars and children as shields, only to indulge in criminal activities either in the night or at any given opportunity.

Her words: “Every day, you receive complaints about one thing or the other -one chance, kidnapping, and all manner of evil things happening in FCT.

“So, the Minister, following consistent security reports on their activities, has decided to solve this cause of insecurity once and for all.

“You see, these beggars will even go to the extent of hiring people’s children to come and beg.”

She stressed that the families from whom the beggars hire the children don’t even know that’s what they are being used for; “We have caught so many of them like that.” She said.

“And also, they have taken it as a business. They will now go and hire people from other states, put them in vehicles; very early in the morning, they will come into Abuja and start begging; by evening or in the nighttime, they will disappear.

“There is a woman we caught, she said that she has cancer of the her breast, but by the time we removed the bandage, there was not a single wound on her breast.

“So, all these things are happening in Abuja, that’s why the Minister has decided to do away with them,” she revealed.

Speaking more on ‘one chance’, she said: “on the ‘one chance’ issue, there is one that our officers picked at night by 2am. He was carrying a machete with a POS machine, and all manner of POS cards of different banks”.

The Acting Director stated that all those arrested would be profiled where they are camped and fed in Bwari, and would be taken back to their various states.

On his part, Director, Department of Security Services, FCTA, Adamu Gwary, affirmed that all those arrested commited various crimes in Abuja.

Gwary, who was represented by a Deputy in the Department, Dr. Peter Olumuji, highlighted the implications of beggars and destitutes on the security of the FCT.

Corroborating the Acting Director, Gwary stated that the menace became a major security threat to residents, hence it became imperative for the Minister to act proactively.

His words: “The Honourable Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike, has given that directive to the Commissioner of Police and all other relevant agencies to ensure that the FCT is rid of all these security threats for the good of FCT residents.

“That is why this operation has commenced and you can see the progress that has been made.

“In due course, the Commissioner of Police is going to address the press on the success story very soon.

“But now, we are here at the Bwari Rehabilitation Centre and it is expedient because the Commissioner of Police has directed that massive deployment should be made to this center to secure those that have been brought in here, to secure the entire perimeter of this particular center,” He spoke.

He disclosed that the exercise has, so far, covered the City Center, Kubwa, Gwarinpa, Asokoro, Garki, Wuse and others.