The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has removed no fewer than 607 beggars and mentally challenged individuals from the streets of Abuja between July 2025 and date, as part of efforts to enhance security and maintain order in the nation’s capital.
Mrs Ukachi Adebayo, Head of Enforcement at the FCT Social Development Secretariat (SDS), disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
Adebayo said the exercise was carried out by the Operation Sweep Abuja team, established to rid the city of criminal elements. She explained that out of the 607 persons evacuated, 583 were beggars, while 23 were mentally challenged individuals.
According to her, those apprehended were counselled and profiled before being taken to their respective state liaison offices for return to their states of origin, where they are expected to undergo rehabilitation.
“What we do when we apprehend them is to counsel them in order to properly profile them. After that, we take them to their liaison offices to be returned to their states,” Adebayo said.
She noted that despite repeated evacuations, many of the individuals often return to the streets of Abuja, attributing the trend to insecurity in some states of origin. She added that the operation would remain ongoing.
Similarly, the Acting Director of Social Welfare at the SDS, Mrs Gloria Onwuka, said investigations revealed that some children seen begging on the streets were brought in from other states by unidentified individuals who collect the proceeds from them.
Onwuka disclosed that in many cases, women arrested with children begging were not their biological mothers, describing street begging as a growing business.
“Begging is now run like a business. People hire children from other states and bring them to Abuja to beg, while the families of the children are often unaware,” she said.
Also speaking, Dr Peter Olumuji, Secretary of the FCTA Command and Control Centre, said Operation Sweep Abuja is a joint security operation involving relevant security agencies as well as FCT secretariats, departments and agencies.
He explained that the initiative was instituted by the FCT Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike, to rid Abuja of miscreants, beggars, scavengers and other criminal elements, noting that beggars pose security threats and contribute to the defacing of the city.
Olumuji added that some beggars serve as informants to criminals, while others become victims of kidnapping and ritual-related crimes.
He recalled that Wike, in October 2024, declared a war on street begging in Abuja, citing concerns that the city was fast turning into a “beggars’ city.”
The minister had stressed that the move was aimed at strengthening security and ensuring that residents and visitors could live and move around the capital without fear.
