Hoodlums Attack Gwarimpa Residents After FCTA Demolished 2,000 Shops

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

Hooligans, yesterday, unleashed violence on the residents of Karsana, Gwarinpa district,after the Federal Capital Territory Administration demolished over 2,000 illegal batchers and shops.

The intervention of the Police led to the arrest of five members of the criminal gangs and confiscation of large cache of drugs from them.

The residents, who were victims of the attack, had their phones and bags snatched by the delinquents.

A police officer was almost robbed by the criminals for rescuing a lady but for the prompt response of FCTA Task Force on city sanitation.

The Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to FCT Minister, Ikharo Attah, condemned the attack by the hooligans on innocent residents of Gwarimpa.

“It was what we have always described as post demolition criminality here in shanties and criminal hideouts in which criminals come out with daggers and other dangerous weapons and start to rob passersby of their handsets and bags and other belongings. We had to go back to rescue a lady, whose phone was snatched and we were able to recover it and hand it over to her.

“The policeman saw the woman, when she was being attacked and in the process of rescuing the woman, he was also robbed. We went back to get the two phones back,” Attah said.

He described yesterday’s cleanup as continuation of the demolition exercise that started on Monday.

The Secretary of FCTA Command and Control Unit, Peter Olumuji, said three persons were arrested for being in possession of drugs.

A victim of the attack, Inyang Iyam, said he had been living in the area for over 30 years, and that the land was sold to him by the Gbagyi.