FCTA Removes 607 Beggars, Mentally Challenged Persons from Abuja Streets

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has removed 607 beggars and mentally challenged individuals from the streets of Abuja between July 2025 and the present.

The Head of Enforcement at the FCT Social Development Secretariat (SDS), Mrs Ukachi Adebayo, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday.

Adebayo said the exercise was carried out by the Operation Sweep Abuja team as part of efforts to rid the city of criminal elements and restore order to the nation’s capital.

According to her, 583 of those evacuated were beggars, while 23 were persons with mental health challenges.

She explained that those apprehended were counselled and profiled before being handed over to their respective state governments through liaison offices for return and rehabilitation.

“When we apprehend beggars and mentally challenged individuals, we first counsel them so we can properly profile them. After that, we take them to their various liaison offices to be returned to their states, where they are expected to undergo rehabilitation,” Adebayo said.

She noted that despite repeated evacuations, many of the individuals often return to the streets, adding that the operation would continue.

“The more you take them out, the more they resurface. Some of them were driven out of their states by insecurity and came to Abuja to seek refuge, but we will continue to apprehend them and take them back,” she said.

Also speaking, the Acting Director of Social Welfare at the SDS, Mrs Gloria Onwuka, said investigations revealed that some children seen begging on Abuja streets were brought in from other states by unidentified individuals to beg on their behalf.

Onwuka said some women arrested with children were found not to be their biological mothers, adding that street begging had become a commercial enterprise.

“Begging is now run like a business. Some people hire children from other states, bring them to Abuja early in the morning and force them to beg, collecting the proceeds. In many cases, the families of these children are not even aware of what is being done,” she said.

The Secretary of the FCTA Command and Control Centre, Dr Peter Olumuji, said Operation Sweep Abuja was a joint security initiative involving relevant security agencies and FCT Secretariats, Departments and Agencies.

Olumuji said the operation was instituted by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to rid Abuja of miscreants, street beggars, scavengers and other criminal elements.

He said beggars constituted both a security risk and a nuisance, noting that some of them acted as informants for criminal groups.

According to him, apart from defacing the city, beggars and mentally challenged individuals are sometimes exposed to kidnapping, ritual abuse and other dangers.

Olumuji said the operation was ongoing and would continue to clamp down on beggars and other criminal elements wherever they resurfaced.

He recalled that Wike had in October 2024 declared war on street begging in Abuja, citing concerns that the city was fast becoming overrun by beggars and that some individuals posing as beggars could be criminals.

He said the initiative was aimed at strengthening security in the capital and ensuring that residents could live and sleep without fear.