Minister Nyesom Wike of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has expressed the view that combating crime in Abuja or any location, in totality is impossible.
Wike made this statement in response to public concerns about the recent surge in kidnappings and killings in Abuja and its surroundings.
He suggested that many alarms regarding insecurity in the capital were raised by politicians with the intention of undermining the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
As seen in a video, he said, “The so-called alarm is political. Some politicians are bent on making sure the government does not survive and they do it by creating unnecessary tension, by carrying propaganda. Something just happened there, they tell you it has happened 25 times.”
He accused some people of blackmailing him for his frequent trips to his home state, Rivers in South-South Nigeria.
“How does my going home on Friday affect you not taking security seriously? So the only time the kidnappings happen is when I’m not around on Saturday? They don’t kidnap from Monday to Friday?
“That is political, that is propaganda, that is blackmail.
“When we came here, people said that everything has collapsed in Abuja. That refuse has taken over the place; no streetlights, no road. How many of you have come out to commend us, that in the five months we have been in office, we are seeing changes?
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“All you do is to pick one that has not been solved or that appears to be the problem now, you forget the ones that the government has put efforts into and which have yielded results.
“I have said that you cannot stop total crime. Let one person tell me as a professional, as an expert, that there is anywhere in this world where there is zero crime. Even where when you are caught, they amputate your legs or go to prison immediately, there is still crime.
“It is difficult for people to say that because kidnapping has happened last night in one or two places, there is insecurity in the whole of FCT. That is not correct.”
Speaking on Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) installation in the FCT, the minister said that if CCTV is installed, people will still vandalise the cameras.
“Go and put the cameras on the road, our people will go in the night and vandalise it. Our own people you are providing security for. Go and put solar lights, at midnight by 2am people will go and vandalise it,” he said.
According to him, people have been stealing manhole covers.
“You then ask yourself, what security will you put in place? How many security personnel do we have to hold, mount on the roads to check the stealing of the manhole?
“If you even decide to put vigilante, who is sure that some of these vigilantes are not those who are carrying out such actions?” he queried.
