Despite repeated assurances by the police that Abuja is safe and secure,
\nmany residents of the nation’s capital city now live in fear and
\napprehension, given what they describe as the unrelenting widespread
\noccurrence of both violent and nonviolent crimes in the city.<\/p>\n
As one robbery victim who lives in the Wuse 2 part of the city remarked
\nin a chat with this newspaper, no part of the city seems immune to this
\nmenace, whether the highbrow areas or the suburbs and satellite towns.
\nPreferring anonymity, he cited cases of friends or relations of his
\nliving in such areas as Kubwa, Lugbe and Nyanya, who have recently been
\nvictims of one form of crime or another.<\/p>\n
Police sources tell this newspaper that in the last few months, multiple
\ncases of burglaries have been reported in most parts of the city,
\nclosely followed by armed robberies (including the “one chance” variant
\nof it), kidnappings and car theft, all of which paint the picture of
\ncrime rates that are on the rise.<\/p>\n
The source cited several recent instances of violent crimes in the city,
\nincluding the unsolved murders of a former ambassador to South Africa,
\nSunday Yusuf, who got thrown out of the window of his third floor
\napartment in Wuse Zone 5 by armed assailants, and the stabbing to death
\nof Olufunke Omotuyi, acting Registrar of the Medical Laboratory Science
\nCouncil of Nigeria, in her Apo residence, both in June 2019.<\/p>\n
He equally cited several cases of kidnapping in the month of September
\nalone, including that of Aisha Ardo, who was abducted outside a popular
\nsupermarket in Asokoro, and was released after the family reportedly
\npaid the equivalent of millions of naira in ransom. There was also the
\ncase of a Baze University lecturer, who has since been rescued by the
\npolice, and the cases of two teenage girls and a woman, who were
\nkidnapped in Maitama on the 14th of September in two separate incidents,
\nand are yet to regain their freedom.<\/p>\n
In Mpape, where armed robbers forcefully gained entrance into an estate
\nand robbed several residents in early hours of Monday, 23rd of
\nSeptember, one of the victims, one Mr. Anayo, told Pointblanknews.com
\nthat a police team, which arrived several hours after the robbery
\nincident, advised residents to form a vigilante group to help keep
\ncriminals out of the area, saying the police lack the operational
\nequipment with which to respond adequately to distress calls, especially
\nvehicles.<\/p>\n
This newspaper can report that such vigilante groups are already in
\nplace in several Abuja communities and estates, but they are often no
\nmatch for daredevil robbers with sophisticated weapons. One resident of
\nKurudu told Pointblanknews.com that her estate was robbed earlier in the
\nyear and that the robbers easily sent the members of the estate’s
\nunarmed vigilante group running for their lives merely by firing off
\nseveral shots into the air.<\/p>\n
In Dutse, another suburb of the FCT, there have been quite a few
\nburglaries in the last few months, as attested to by some of the
\nresidents. A lady who simply identified herself as Maryam told
\nPointBlankNews that shops are frequently targeted by burglars and that
\nmost of the time the criminals are not caught. She also said that in her
\npart of Dutse, four residential apartments whose owners were out of town
\nwere targeted by burglars about two months ago, including one occupied
\nby a friend of hers, and that so far, the criminals have not been found.<\/p>\n
Some residents are asking why the police should require victims of
\ncrimes such as burglary, to finance the process of investigating and
\nprosecuting the cases. In a Facebook post dated 19th September, one
\nObiora Kenneth Chinwuba echoes the minds of many Abuja residents: “You
\ngo to NPF (Nigeria Police Force) to report a burglary incident , they
\nwill ask you to pay for opening of case file(absurd), you will still
\nmobilize them to go and see the burgled premises.<\/p>\n
“If they eventually make arrests, they will still ask you to mobilize
\nthem to charge the matter to court.\u00a0 You guys go to court, and the
\nmagistrate remands the suspects in prison custody pending when they meet
\ntheir bail demand or pending the next date for hearing. The prison
\nofficers will ask you to bring money to transport the suspect (s) to
\nprison.<\/p>\n
“This is happening in Abuja, Wuse precisely. Then you can imagine what
\nis happening in other states of the federation.<\/p>\n
“Honestly, sometimes it is just so hard to be patriotic.”<\/p>\n
In a telephone chat with Pointblanknews.com, the Police Public Relations
\nOfficer for the FCT Command, Mr. Anjuguri Manzah, however defended the
\nperformance of the Command in crime fighting, saying the police is
\n“doing a lot”. Manzah, who lamented that the efforts of the police are
\noften underreported, while crime rates are likewise “exaggerated”, told
\nthis reporter that the FCT Command in the last two weeks has “paraded a
\ntotal of 24 suspected criminals,” including a gang of “one chance”
\noperators, and recovered several dangerous weapons from the suspects.
\nStating that the Command does not have the resources to provide vehicles
\nand other operational logistics for all the police stations under it, he
\nenjoined the public to support the police by always coming forward with
\ninformation that will help keep communities safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n