Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Joint Task Team and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), yesterday, arrested two suspected drug peddlers and three criminals at the Gwarimpa rail corridor.
The Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police Force, Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Nigeria Immigration Service and the Department of State Services were also part of the raid.
The Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to the Minister of FCT, Ikharo Attah, said the NDLEA of the Command and Control JTF team under the Commissioner of Police, FCT, Babaji Sunday and the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bernard Iwe, arrested the people suspected to be carrying illicit drugs.
The police also followed suit by arresting three suspected criminals on the railway corridor.
The team accompanied by the officials of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) stormed the rail corridor unannounced to commence demolition of shanties, market and batchers defacing the satellite town.
He said the police swooped after residents complained about persons trying to hide there as cover to rob neighborhoods.
Attah said the operation reinforced the vow of the FCT Minister Malam Muhammad Musa Bello and Babaji’s desire to rid the nation’s capital of the criminal hideouts.
He said the FCTA would sustain the demolition of illegal structures, markets and shanties built on the encroached rail corridor in Gwarimpa.
“We are here for several reasons, the first one is that there have been series of complaints over this place. Secondly, the issue of city sanitation is a problem here plus general issues of insecurity. This is Hayari Kasua Market, we cleared it last year and this year we have come again to clear it because the traders returned,” he said.
Responding to a question on why the land was not put to its original use, Attah said the land which belonged to FCTA was designed as a transit part connecting the Kubwa Outer Northern Road, adding the fact that it had not been awarded did not mean that people should encroach on it and build offensive market, batchers and shanties that serve as criminal hideout.
“Gwarimpa will take us one week, Kuje is still a work in progress and Mpape is beckoning, Airport road is a constant place of operation and everywhere around the city is calling for clean up”.
