Over 200 beggars arrested in Abuja as Wike cracks down on unhoused persons

As part of a renewed effort to rid Abuja of street beggars and unhoused individuals, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has taken 210 persons into custody, citing concerns over growing criminal activity.

The Acting Director of the Social Welfare Department, Gloria Onwuka, made this known on Thursday while addressing journalists at the Vocational and Rehabilitation Centre in Bwari, where those arrested are being processed.

According to her, the crackdown — part of the ongoing “Operation Sweep Abuja Clean” initiative — led to the arrest of 80 men, 58 women, and 72 children.

Onwuka revealed that the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, had issued a directive to intensify the operation following numerous public complaints linking street begging to crimes such as abductions and fraud.

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“Every day you receive complaints about one thing or the other, One -chance, kidnapping, all manner of evil things in FCT. So the minister directed us to do away with all those things,” she said.

She further disclosed that some individuals involved in street begging go as far as renting children to appeal for sympathy from the public.

“Most of the beggars go even to the extent of hiring people’s children to come on the road and be begging. And there are families where they are hiring these children, we don’t even know that this is what they are using their children to do,” she said.

“They have taken it as a business. They will now go and hire people from other states, put them in vehicle, very early in the morning, they will come in Abuja and start begging. By evening or in the nighttime, they will disappear,” she added.

Onwuka recounted a specific case of deception involving a woman pretending to have breast cancer. “There is a woman we caught, she now said that she has cancer at the breast. So by the time they loosen the bandage, there was no single wound at her breast.”

She also cited a disturbing incident involving a man found armed and in possession of multiple ATM cards and a POS machine.

“The one chance issue, there is one that our officers, our people, picked at night by 2am. He was carrying a machete with POS and different bank ATMs. The time they pick anybody, they will now ask you, which one is your bank? They will give you the card of your own bank, you press. If you fail, they use that machete and do away with you.”

She emphasized that the operation would continue until the streets of Abuja are cleared of beggars and illegal street occupants.

Also speaking on the matter, Director of the FCTA Security Services Department, Adamu Gwary, noted that those arrested pose significant security risks. Represented by Peter Olumuji, he expressed concern about the criminal tendencies associated with street begging.

“We want to believe that most of the people arrested, they have constituted degrees of crime and other things in the nation’s capital,” Gwary said.

“The security concern of most of these nuisances within the FCT have become a source of great worry to the residents. And the Minister has given that directive to the Commission of Police and all other relevant agencies to ensure that the FCT is rid of all these security threats,” he added.