Insecurity: FCTA dislodges scavengers in Abuja

In a move to contain the security threat posed by scavengers in Abuja, popularly known as Babanbola, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), on Thursday, removed the scavengers colony in the Katampe area of a
the city.

Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to the Minister of FCT, Ikharo Attah, while speaking to journalists, in Abuja, urged the indigenes that are renting their cashew plantations to scavengers should stop it.

According to Attah, “Part of our work to actually rid the city of babanbola, criminally minded refuse collector, We came here in Katampe, where we met them heavily hidden in this cashew plantation and we have gone ahead to remove them.

“They are people who are largely tied to crime, we even saw someone’s plate number, we asked them what are you doing with someone’s plate number, they couldn’t explain so we had to collect it from them. Sometimes we see female handbags, shoes, and clothes it may be because women are vulnerable and that is why.

He reiterated the commitment of the administration to removing scavenger colonies in Federal Capital City, FCC.
“We are going after babanbola strongly in Abuja, the Minister has given us a matching order while all the security chiefs are giving us maximum support, that we must go and remove all the babanbolas in their colonies across Abuja, especially across FCC.

“They are very dangerous people, maybe some indigenous owners of cashew trees rent out their cashew plantation to them or some are being chased out and their farm being taken over by these dangerous elements, we will keep removing them.

“Some indigenes have said they don’t rent the cashew plantation to them. Some said they enter their cashew plantation in large numbers and threaten them and for their own safety they leave it and disappear”.

He noted that it is imperative for all scavengers to move to the designated site at the Gosa dump site, “I believe it is a combined team we have here and if we constantly clear them, they will move to the area we have asked them which is the Gosa dump site where we have a large land for them to go and do their activities there around the refuse community, but if they don’t go we will keep coming after them.”

He urged the owners of the land to come and fence their land and develop their plots of land because if the owners develop their land babanbola will not stay there.

On security he said,
“It is a very dangerous criminal den and we have gotten complaints from some Diplomats living around here, they said sometimes you will just stay in your house and you will just see some suspicious people hanging around and times it is the smell of Indian hemp passing through your window. It is a safety thing for everyone including those that are working here.”

Assistant Director in the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) in charge of Monitoring and Enforcement, Kaka Bello, who on behalf of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), on behalf of Director of the board, Engr Osilama Briamah, appealed to all babanbolas and scavengers in FCC to move to the designated site meant for them in Gosa.

“It is a clean-up exercise of scavengers living here and they have been removed several times but they keep coming back. We gave them notice for about two weeks, there is a little compliance but we still need to mop up the area

“This is the medium to appeal to these scavengers to please leave the city because there is no part of the city that is designated for their activities especially residential areas like this and road corridors.

“If they must carry out this type of business they should at least use a designated dump site where they can scavenge whatever they want there.

“It is about the poor quality of the environment, it destroys the quality of the environment the aesthetics and when land use is not designated for a particular use and it is used for another thing, it is an abuse of the land use. Director AEPB Engr. Osilamah has directed that all scavenger colonies in the city should be removed. It is a land use contravention and that is why we are here today.”

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