FCTA to shut down illegal motor parks over ‘one-chance’ cab robberies

In a bid to tackle the growing menace of ‘one chance’ robberies and kidnappings in Abuja and its environs, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has threatened to shut down illegal motor parks operating in the city.

The Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, made this known on Thursday during a chat with journalists in his office in Abuja.

This is as Wike blamed the rising crime in the nation’s capital on illegal motor parks and uncompleted buildings used as dens by criminals.

Persecondnews reports that commuters in FCT have been gripped by fear over rising cases of ‘one-chance’ criminals, who disguise as commercial vehicle operators to attack and rob unsuspecting victims.

He said: “We are getting a lot of reports about kidnappings here, about ‘one-chance’ there.

“In most cases we don’t even let the public to know what has been done. I can tell you the security agencies have done quite a lot. If not, by now, the FCT would have been a different thing.

“One of the areas we identified is that the FCT is at the centre – we have Niger State, we have Kogi State, we have Nasarawa State, we have Kaduna State. And if you check, these four states are states that experience from time to time, banditry, kidnapping.

“We discovered that most of the areas that they stay are shanties and uncompleted buildings and that is why we say we cannot allow these uncompleted buildings where criminals have made their place of abode. Bring down all these uncompleted buildings which have turned to shanties, and they will have nowhere to hide.

“Just last week, we set up a joint task force on those states that we have borders with. The Joint security task force including the SSS, police, army and navy, have identified the way they will operate.”

“Again, you see a lot of illegal motor parks. When we come up with a policy that we can’t allow these illegal motor parks, people will come up to say the economy is hard, things are tough but nobody wants to look at it from the security implication.

“We are also planning to shut down some of these illegal motor parks,” the minister said.