By Sarah NEGEDU
The joint city enforcement team of the FCT Administration, over the weekend, raided a spots notorious for trading of illicit drugs and other criminal activities around the popular AYA roundabout in Asokoro District.
The team, comprising of officials from the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB, and Directorate of Road Traffic Services, as well as a joint team of security personnel, also rid the areas of environmental and sundry nuisances ranging from refuse dump, illegal markets, auto mechanic workshops and motor parks.
Explaining the exercise, Secretary, FCTA Command and Control, Olumuji Peter, said it is in continuation of the FCT Administration’s commitment in ensuring that the city is kept safe for every resident.
Olumuji, disclosed that through credible intelligence from security agencies, the team bursted a criminal hideout around Asokoro, where illicit drugs were recovered and criminal elements that attack people traversing the area, especially in the nighttime were dislodged.
According to him, “We have been able to dislodged where they normally reside, and that is a good development to those traversing around the place especially in the nighttime.
“We had gotten reports that people are being attacked whenever they are traversing this environment. But with the action that we have taken now, such criminal activities here have been reduced to the bearest minimum, which we hope to sustain.”
Similarly, Deputy Director, Monitoring and Enforcement, AEPB, Kaka Bello, noted that the whole effort is to see that the city is clean and safe for the inhabitants.
He however, bemoaned that environmental and sundry nuisances are increasing daily, which explains why working together with other relevant agencies, a strategy was conceived.
He said, “AYA is one of the notorious places where we encounter a lot of challenges whenever we come for such cleaning exercise, given the rate of nuisance here, which have been abated. And the illicit drug related offences that were apprehended by the NDLEA officers.
“They are all interwoven, and we are working together with other agencies to make sure that we abate such nuisances. And it is a daily thing, which we would continue to do, as the city must be clean on a daily basis.”