By Fred Itua, Romanus Ugwu, Molly Kilete and Charity Nwakaudu
The menace of motorcycle riders in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, appears to defy commonsense solutions. The popular means of transportation, especially in the suburbs of Abuja, is becoming a nightmare, residents have complained.
Popularly referred to as okada, they’re ubiquitous in Kubwa, Nyanya Kuje, Bwari and in other satellite towns bordering the city centre in Abuja.
For instance, Kuje Area Council is not immune to the new crime wave threatening the FCT. From Kabi Mango, Pegi, Chukuku to other remote parts of the Area Council, the crime incidents have degenerated from okada theft, house robbery and reported cases of kidnapping for ransom to now potential threats from escaped terrorist inmates of the Kuje Correctional Centre.
Late last year and early this year, gang robbery dominated the crime incidence, with boys, numbering well over 20 or more, usually armed to the teeth with all manners of dangerous weapon, would rob shops and homes for hours, unleashing horror on their victims without any response from the security agents. These daredevil criminals, it has been discovered, ply their trades, using okada.
Reacting to the crime situation in the Area Council, a civil servant with the Ministry of Works, lamented in a chat with Daily Sun that packing into Kuje from Nyanya has now become like jumping from a frying pan into the fire.
According to him; “Kuje is not only home for convicted prisoners and awaiting trial inmates at the medium Correctional Centre, but also a settlement where residents are prisoners of many things. We are prisoners of the menace of commercial motorcyclists who torment other road users with their recklessness, indiscriminate packing along the road, making life unbearable and very difficult for other road users.
“It is even worse when you notice that almost all the commercial and privately owned motorcycles operate without registered plate numbers. It is more agonising when the personnel of both the VIOs and the Federal Road Safety Corps pay less attention to all the rascality of these motorcycle operators, preferring to go after the motorists that will part with something to them.
“We are prisoners of the armed robbers who invade many homes, shops and operate for several hours without intervention from the security agents. Life in Kuje is such a torment that one wonders most of the time if government exists at all. There is so much impunity and nasty behaviours, especially from the youths who arrogantly do whatever they feel without giving a damn,” he lamented.
Recently, robbery and okada theft have become the lesser evil with the rampaging menace of kidnapping around the council. No fewer than ten cases have been recorded in recent times. It was more rampant in remote areas like Chibiri, Kabi Mango, Pegi, among others.
If the residents had tolerated the crime wave, the recent Kuje Prison break has worsened the security situation in the Area Council. Residents now live in perpetual fear of possible attack from the escaped terrorist gang members, Boko Haram insurgents, bandits, and other hardened criminals, who are believed to rely on use of okada. Apart from the escapees, some of their members had lived, mixed with the residents, and even operated okada and other businesses for months in Kuje before carrying out the ferocious attack on the Correctional Centre to free 69 convicts and other prison inmates.
“To think that we have mingled with members of the deadly Boko Haram sect in our midst for that long is traumatic enough for every resident of Kuje. Come to think of it, they have known the terrain very well, having been involved in operating okada, which took them close to our houses, even making the situation more terrifying for us,” a resident, who declined his identity for security reasons, lamented.
Beside the menace created by okada riders, scavengers in every nook and cranny of Abuja, including the city, are becoming notorious.
Scavengers have constituted themselves as nuisance to residents. They have no time for rules or schedules as they carry out their businesses. The quest for money, food and entertainment has pushed most of them into anti-social activities such as house-breaking, pick-pocketing and molestation of children and women.
According to people living on the outskirts of the city, they no longer put their clothes outside their homes because they are not likely to see them again. They complain that scavengers steal clothes, generators and other things they can lay their hands on. They visit places at odd hours, when most people must have gone to their places of work. Most of them pilfer stuff in crowded places like Berger and Nyanya during rush hours.
A housewife, living in Wuse axis of Abuja, narrated her ordeal in the hands of a scavenger who walked into the compound while she was the only one around. She said she was nearly raped in her house. She ran out of the compound and the man ran after her.
“While he was waiting, her shouting attracted some people who came to overpower him. Most of these scavengers feel they are above the law and even the security agencies don’t take their matters seriously,” she narrated.
Scavengers are becoming time bomb on the lives of Abuja residents. Titus from Mopol Junction in Nyanya said scavengers are the main problem people are facing these days.
“One cannot leave or forget any of one’s valuables outside and meet them when onr returns,” he lamented, adding that his previous generating set and some of his motor parts he kept behind the house were stolen by scavengers.
“They kept some condemned iron for me there. It was the line of their wheelbarrow that made me to believe they were the ones because I was beginning to suspect my neighbours. Those parts are very expensive; who knows how much they are going to sell them?
“The case of generator theft is very high in our area. When I bought this new one, I decided to make an iron cage for it. Most people have been complaining of their violent reaction anytime you see them with stolen materials.”
A woman from Kubwa, Ochie, said in her area one could no longer spread clothes under the sun and go out or leave one’s shoes in front of one’s door without someone watching it: Any day you are washing, you must be ready to keep watch and if you leave the compound, you may not meet your materials.
“A neighbour had a guest and they were inside while the visitor pulled his pair of shoes outside, only for him to come out and meet a pair of dirty slippers in place of the shoes,” she lamented. A middle-age man from Kodu, who does not want his name to be mentioned, said the scavengers are so mean that they are ready to fight one over one’s property. He said a woman left her shop under the care of her little child just to get something from a nearby shop. But before she returned, they had made away with her umbrella.
“These scavengers are becoming so powerful that people are now so scared of confronting them even when they discover their property with them because they are always loaded with weapons and ready to fight. When the owner of the shop came back and couldn’t find her umbrella, people around told her that they saw a scavenger moving around the shop, so they went in search of him. When they saw the man with other items and the umbrella, he brought out a knife and threatened to stab anyone that came close. The woman had to leave.
“I think the government should do something about these scavengers before it gets out of hand. At times when you confront them they pretend not to understand English and are always violent,” he narrated.
Sandra, a resident of Mpape confessed that a scavenger threatened to cut her throat because of her pot of food: “I was cooking and saw him sitting afar of. I never knew he was monitoring me.
“Immediately I dropped the pot of rice, he rushed at me and brought out a dagger from his bag, threatening to kill me if I shouted. I had to release the food and run away. We went to bed without food that night,” she said.
A civil servant who resides in Kuje, said it was time the Federal Government began monitoring the movement of scavengers in the Federal Capital Territory.
“This is the nation’s capital; there some things that are not supposed to be allowed, most of them are seen moving around the town with fully loaded wheelbarrows, to the extent that they can’t view oncoming vehicles or persons. This can easily lead to accidents.
“Apart from resulting in accidents, they litter the city with all kinds of dirt, they walk confidently without minding what people say or feel about them. I think they should be stopped from moving freely in the heart of town because it does not say good of the nation,” the resident stated.
Meanwhile, a scavenger around Liberty junction in Kubwa, agreed that some of the scavengers are thieves, but insisted that scavenging is good business because scavengers make a lot of money from those condemned materials.
“Yes, the work is very dirty and dangerous to health, but if you are careful and have a focus, you will make good money within a very short period of time and start a good business. Most people see us as thieves. We have thieves among us but please, it is not all of us. Some of us are genuine scavengers; we don’t take people’s property,” he stated.
But the police said they have put all security measures in place to checkmate the influx and activities of criminals into the nation’s capital. They also described the rumours of a trailer load of young men allegedly transported into the FCT, on a daily basis as fake and aimed at putting fear in the minds of residents.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Oduniyi Omotayo, when contacted, said: “The Inspector-General of Police has instituted a lot of inter-state police checkpoints whereby the vehicles travelling from one state to another is being observed. So we are able to know whether this person is in possession of arms.”
On the influx of motorcycles operators who daily storm the FCT in their numbers, the Police spokesman, said: “Well, wherever there is population explosion, you should expect the influx of okada riders, tricycles riders, metal scavengers. Whenever there is population explosion, you should expect those three things and it is so because most of the people coming in are not really equipped with jobs or occupation that can fit into a city like Abuja.
“So they make do with what they have. So we are trying as much as possible to work with the various heads of Okada associations and the Commissioner of Police, Babaji Sunday, has called them severally to hold meetings with them. Part of these meetings is to ensure that they are well documented. In fact they use reflective jackets during the day and in the night. And we put a stipulated period of time when they will be operating in some areas. We are also working in synergy with them to report criminal elements among them.
“This is not to say that all motorcycles operators are criminals. But this is to say that we have been working in synergy with their heads to fish out the bad eggs if there are any.”