Despite repeated assurances by the police that Abuja is safe and secure,
many residents of the nation’s capital city now live in fear and
apprehension, given what they describe as the unrelenting widespread
occurrence of both violent and nonviolent crimes in the city.
As one robbery victim who lives in the Wuse 2 part of the city remarked
in a chat with this newspaper, no part of the city seems immune to this
menace, whether the highbrow areas or the suburbs and satellite towns.
Preferring anonymity, he cited cases of friends or relations of his
living in such areas as Kubwa, Lugbe and Nyanya, who have recently been
victims of one form of crime or another.
Police sources tell this newspaper that in the last few months, multiple
cases of burglaries have been reported in most parts of the city,
closely followed by armed robberies (including the “one chance” variant
of it), kidnappings and car theft, all of which paint the picture of
crime rates that are on the rise.
The source cited several recent instances of violent crimes in the city,
including the unsolved murders of a former ambassador to South Africa,
Sunday Yusuf, who got thrown out of the window of his third floor
apartment in Wuse Zone 5 by armed assailants, and the stabbing to death
of Olufunke Omotuyi, acting Registrar of the Medical Laboratory Science
Council of Nigeria, in her Apo residence, both in June 2019.
He equally cited several cases of kidnapping in the month of September
alone, including that of Aisha Ardo, who was abducted outside a popular
supermarket in Asokoro, and was released after the family reportedly
paid the equivalent of millions of naira in ransom. There was also the
case of a Baze University lecturer, who has since been rescued by the
police, and the cases of two teenage girls and a woman, who were
kidnapped in Maitama on the 14th of September in two separate incidents,
and are yet to regain their freedom.
In Mpape, where armed robbers forcefully gained entrance into an estate
and robbed several residents in early hours of Monday, 23rd of
September, one of the victims, one Mr. Anayo, told Pointblanknews.com
that a police team, which arrived several hours after the robbery
incident, advised residents to form a vigilante group to help keep
criminals out of the area, saying the police lack the operational
equipment with which to respond adequately to distress calls, especially
vehicles.
This newspaper can report that such vigilante groups are already in
place in several Abuja communities and estates, but they are often no
match for daredevil robbers with sophisticated weapons. One resident of
Kurudu told Pointblanknews.com that her estate was robbed earlier in the
year and that the robbers easily sent the members of the estate’s
unarmed vigilante group running for their lives merely by firing off
several shots into the air.
In Dutse, another suburb of the FCT, there have been quite a few
burglaries in the last few months, as attested to by some of the
residents. A lady who simply identified herself as Maryam told
PointBlankNews that shops are frequently targeted by burglars and that
most of the time the criminals are not caught. She also said that in her
part of Dutse, four residential apartments whose owners were out of town
were targeted by burglars about two months ago, including one occupied
by a friend of hers, and that so far, the criminals have not been found.
Some residents are asking why the police should require victims of
crimes such as burglary, to finance the process of investigating and
prosecuting the cases. In a Facebook post dated 19th September, one
Obiora Kenneth Chinwuba echoes the minds of many Abuja residents: “You
go to NPF (Nigeria Police Force) to report a burglary incident , they
will ask you to pay for opening of case file(absurd), you will still
mobilize them to go and see the burgled premises.
“If they eventually make arrests, they will still ask you to mobilize
them to charge the matter to court. You guys go to court, and the
magistrate remands the suspects in prison custody pending when they meet
their bail demand or pending the next date for hearing. The prison
officers will ask you to bring money to transport the suspect (s) to
prison.
“This is happening in Abuja, Wuse precisely. Then you can imagine what
is happening in other states of the federation.
“Honestly, sometimes it is just so hard to be patriotic.”
In a telephone chat with Pointblanknews.com, the Police Public Relations
Officer for the FCT Command, Mr. Anjuguri Manzah, however defended the
performance of the Command in crime fighting, saying the police is
“doing a lot”. Manzah, who lamented that the efforts of the police are
often underreported, while crime rates are likewise “exaggerated”, told
this reporter that the FCT Command in the last two weeks has “paraded a
total of 24 suspected criminals,” including a gang of “one chance”
operators, and recovered several dangerous weapons from the suspects.
Stating that the Command does not have the resources to provide vehicles
and other operational logistics for all the police stations under it, he
enjoined the public to support the police by always coming forward with
information that will help keep communities safe.