The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has evacuated 607 beggars and mentally challenged individuals from the streets of Abuja, from July 2025 to date.
Mrs Ukachi Adebayo, Head of Enforcement, FCT Social Development Secretariat (SDS) made this known in an interview .
Adebayo said the exercise was carried out by the Operation Sweep Abuja Clean team.
She said that out of the 607 evacuated, 583 were beggars, while 23 were mentally challenged individuals.
She added that the beggars and the mentally challenged individuals had been counselled, profiled and taken back to their various states in collaboration with the state governments through their liaison offices.
Noting that the beggars and mentally challenged persons always returned to the streets after the evacuation, Adebayo said that the operation was ongoing and would continue to take them off the streets of Abuja.
Similarly, Mrs Gloria Onwuka, acting Director, Social Welfare, SDS, said that some of the children begging on the streets were brought in from other states by unidentified individuals to beg and hand over the proceeds to them.
Onwuka added that some of the women that were caught with children, begging on their behalf were not their biological children.
Also, Dr Peter Olumuji, Secretary, FCTA Command and Control Centre, explained that Operation Sweep was a joint security operation involving all relevant security agencies and FCT’s Secretariats, Departments and Agencies.
Olumuji told news men that the operation was instituted by the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, to sweep Abuja of miscreants, street beggars, scavengers and other criminal elements.
He pointed out that beggars pose security threats and constitute a nuisance in the city, adding that some of them serve as informants to criminals.
He said that the operation was ongoing and would continue to crackdown on beggars, miscreants and other criminal elements wherever they resurfaced.
Recalls that Wike, had in October 2024, declared war on beggars defacing Abuja city and posing security risk.
The minister explained that the move was necessary over concerns that Abuja was turning into a beggars’ city.
Wike further said that sometimes the supposed beggars may not be beggars but criminals pretending to be beggars.
He explained that the move was to ensure maximum security so that residents could sleep with their two eyes closed.
DailyPost / Omowunmi Adewuyi
