“The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has, between July 2025 and the present, removed 607 beggars and mentally challenged individuals from Abuja’s streets.”
Mrs Ukachi Adebayo, Head of Enforcement, FCT Social Development Secretariat (SDS) made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.
Adebayo said the exercise was carried out by the Operation Sweep Abuja team, to flush out all criminal elements from the city.
She stated that of the 607 individuals removed, 583 were beggars, while 23 were mentally challenged.
“The beggars and mentally challenged individuals are counselled, profiled, and then returned to their respective states in collaboration with state governments through their liaison offices,” she explained.
She added, “When we apprehend these individuals, we first counsel them and carry out profiling. Afterward, we take them to their state liaison offices so they can be returned for rehabilitation.”
Noting that the beggars and mentally challenged persons return to the streets after the evacuation, Adebayo said that the operation was ongoing and would continue to take them off the streets of Abuja.
She said: “The more you take them out; the more they resurface.
“Some of them were driven by insecurity in their state and they ran to Abuja to take refuge but we will continue to apprehend them and take them back”.
Similarly, Mrs. Gloria Onwuka, Acting Director of Social Welfare at SDS, revealed that some children begging on the streets were brought in from other states by unidentified individuals, who then collected the proceeds.
She added that some women caught with begging children were not their biological children.
“Begging has now become a business. People hire children from other states, transport them to Abuja early in the morning, and make them beg,” Onwuka said.
“The families hiring these children often don’t even know what their children are being used for. We have caught many cases like this,” Mrs. Onwuka said.
Dr. Peter Olumuji, Secretary of the FCTA Command and Control Centre, explained that Operation Sweep is a joint security effort involving all relevant agencies and FCT Secretariats, Departments, and Agencies.
Olumuji told NAN that the operation, instituted by FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, aims to rid Abuja of miscreants, street beggars, scavengers, and other criminal elements.
He noted that beggars pose security threats and nuisance in the city, with some even serving as informants for criminals. “Beggars and mentally challenged individuals also deface the city’s beauty, while some fall victim to kidnapping for rituals and other illicit purposes,” he added.
Olumuji emphasized that the operation is ongoing and will continue to target beggars, miscreants, and criminal elements wherever they appear.
The minister explained that the move was necessary over concerns that Abuja was turning into a beggars’ city.
“Let me say clearly now, we have declared war on beggars because Abuja is returning to beggar’s city.
“If you know you have a sister, you have a brother who is a beggar on the road; do something, because from next week, we will carry them; we will take them out of the city.
“It is embarrassing that people who come into Abuja, the first thing they see are just beggars on the road,” he said.
Wike further said that sometimes the supposed beggars may not be beggars but criminals pretending to be beggars.
“We will not allow that,” he said.
He explained that the move was to ensure maximum security so that residents could sleep with their two eyes closed.