THE House of Representatives has decried the growing insecurity around the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and its environs.
The lawmakers have also summoned the FCT Minister Mohammed Bello after adopting a motion of urgent public importance moved by the House Deputy Leader Toby Okechukwu on Tuesday.
According to Okechukwu, Nigeria’s capital had never been unsafe, urging that urgent and proactive steps must be taken to ensure that the city was safe.
The lawmaker also decried the poor state of infrastructure and poor management of the city by the FCT administration.
“Abuja has never been as unsafe as it is today due, among others, to the influx of bandits and other criminals, lack of modern security infrastructures in the city centre and the satellite towns, and non-maintenance of available ones, including CCTV installations and as little as streetlights,” he said.
“There are concerns that the poor city management bedevilling the FCT is resulting in obvious disorderliness and widespread deterioration, with serious concern the indiscriminate allocation of lands without a matching infrastructural development; and acute lack of infrastructure in the satellite towns and the resort by tax-paying citizens to self-help in territory that should ordinarily model rural development in Nigeria.”
The FCT has not been immune to the activities of banditry and kidnappings in recent times.
On Tuesday, November 2, gunmen attacked the University of Abuja and abducted staff and their family members at the staff quarters.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) Chapter Chairman Kassim Umaru, confirmed the abduction of six people, including two professors.
Those abducted, according to Umar, were Professor Obansa and his son; Professor Oboscolo, his son and daughters, as well as Dr Tobins.
Umaru said the attack on the school was successful due to the security lapses on the campus.
Earlier in October, some gunmen had kidnapped 24 persons in the Kuje Local Government Area of the FCT.
FCT communities such as Gwagwalada, Mpape, Pegi and Kuchibena, among others, have been under attack by gunmen who kidnap and abduct residents.
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