FCT: Completion of bus terminals will curb crime — Wike

Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Minister, Nyesom Wike, has said the completion of bus terminals in the FCT would drastically reduce crime in the nation’s capital, Abuja.

He was responding to indiscriminate parking and picking of passengers, which often leads to kidnapping, pickpockets and other crimes popularly known as ‘one chance’ in common parlance.

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The minister disclosed this to newsmen on Tuesday, in Abuja, after inspecting Mabuchi bus and Kugbo bus terminals, two out of the three new bus terminals being constructed by the FCT Administration under his watch to be commissioned by President Bola Tinubu, to mark the President’s second year in office anniversary.

Wike also inspected Daki biyu road, which is also under construction and being made ready for the President to commission soon.

He said: “You don’t need to stay on the road to board a bus or taxi, you have to go to the bus terminal and there, we know drivers, we know the vehicles you have boarded. That, of course, will limit this ‘one chance.’ So that’s the sense of building these terminals, and also to clean up the city so you don’t have buses all over, making the road become motor parks. That’s what we’re doing.”

On the issues raised the last time he visited the Mabuchi terminal, he said all necessary adjustments had been made.

“When we went there last time, you saw that I shouted at them that I was not happy with the finishing. But from what I’ve seen now, there has been a lot of improvement.

“We are happy that we’re providing this kind of infrastructure. You will agree with me that the bus terminal is a basic intervention for us to change our transport system.”

The bus terminal contracts were awarded in 2024 to provide a befitting and safe transportation system for Abuja.

On the Daki biyu road, Wike said he was pleased with the project and that it would be one of those Mr. President would commission at the end of the month.

“We’ve inspected several projects today, but the road that’s going to the court of appeal at Daki biyu is the one that we’re hoping will be part of the inauguration of the president’s second year anniversary.

“We’re quite impressed with what we have seen. And we have assured the residents of Abuja that under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we’re going to give them first-class infrastructure, which they deserve. So we’re happy with what they’ve seen and we believe that we will try as much as we can to keep to the date to we have agreed.”

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