Security expert Bulama Bukarti claims that with kidnappers, chance robbers, and other criminals rifling through Nigeria’s capital city and inflicting havoc on defenseless civilians, Abuja is quickly emerging as one of the world’s scariest towns.
“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,” Bukarti said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday.
“Abuja is becoming one of the scariest Federal Capital cities in the world.”
The kidnapping of six siblings and their father in the Bwari Area Council of Abuja on January 3, 2024, has been met with outrage. One of the sisters, Nabeehah, was allegedly slain by the kidnappers after her parents failed to provide the N60 million ransom by the deadline.
According to Bukarti, events in Abuja are representative of those occurring throughout Nigeria.
“Over 9,700 people were killed last year in 2023 across Nigerians. 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 added that intelligence revealed violent terrorist organizations had relocated to Abuja from the geopolitical zones of the North-East, North-West, and North-Central, with some of these groups operating out of border states including 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, noting that the ugly trend will drive away investors and discourage diplomats from living in the nation’s capital while Nigeria’s security rating in the world will be badly affected.
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.
