More than 69 people were killed and 194 kidnapped during 194 attacks carried out by bandits and other criminals in the Federal Capital Territory in 2022.
This is just when the FCT administration has promised to improve security for the safety of life and property in the new year.
Data obtained from media reports and a leading indigenous intelligence outfit, Beacon Consulting, revealed that a total of 194 security breaches were witnessed across the FCT’s six area councils.
On December 6, 2022, seven people, including a former corps member and a herder, were kidnapped, while two men were killed during a bandit attack in the Kubwa area of the FCT.
On October 12, armed men kidnapped a Maitama resident and killed one person. Six days before the attack, the bandits attacked the FCT’s Abaji area, killing a federal government employee and fleeing with his body.
In June of the same year, a herdsman was kidnapped by armed men in the Kwali area of Abuja. On April 20, bandits kidnapped four family members in the Kuje area of the FCT.
In February, an Abuja prince was kidnapped in Kuje, following the abduction of a 12-year-old girl in the same area on February 1.
Our correspondent was unable to reach FCT Police Public Relations Officer Josephine Adeh at press time as she said she was busy.
But in response to the reports in an interview with our correspondent, Chief Press Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration, Anthony Ogunleye, among other things, noted that the security situation in the FCT had improved in recent times.
Ogunleye said: “The problem of insecurity has been reduced in the FCTA in recent times. The police and other security agencies are working hard, and the administration and the Minister have done a lot to support them.
“The FCTA is doing a lot. These bandits often come from border states and return. If you noticed, the attacks usually take place in the outskirts bordering other states. However, there is the inter-institutional security committee that works together with the security teams of the border states, and they have been doing a lot to evict the bandits and kidnappers.”
