A security expert, Bulama Bukarti has said that Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital city, is becoming one of the scariest cities in the world.
He said issues such as kidnapping, one-chance robbery and other forms of criminality were now rampant in the city.
Bukarti said this on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday.
“In major junctions in Abuja, criminals and armed robbers masquerading as taxi drivers maim and rob Nigerians in a way that we have not seen before.
“Abuja is becoming one of the scariest Federal Capital cities in the world,” he said.
Outrage had trailed the abduction of six siblings and their father in the Bwari Area Council of Abuja on January 3, 2024.
The kidnappers reportedly killed one of the sisters identified as Nabeehah after their parents couldn’t meet the deadline for payment of N60 million ransom.
Bukarti said what is going on in Abuja is a reflection of what has been happening across Nigeria.
“Over 9,700 people were killed last year in 2023 across Nigeria. Abuja cannot be immune to that because as long as you leave insecurity to fester and flourish across Nigeria, then, it will find its way to Abuja,” he said.
Bukarti further said intelligence had shown that violent terrorists’ groups from the North-East, North-West and North-Central geopolitical zones had moved into Abuja, while some operate from border states such as Kogi, Kaduna, Niger and Nasarawa.
“Over 200 people were either killed or abducted in Abuja in the last three months of 2023,” the expert said.
Bukarti urged security agencies to take “sustained security action” in Abuja and in other parts of the country.
“The way to secure Abuja is to take the fight to the bandits and terrorists in other parts of the country,” he advised.
