By Philip Yatai

The Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, on Monday, said that inadequate equipment and operational vehicles were hampering ongoing war against banditry and kidnappings in FCT.

Wike, who said this during a media chat with journalists in Abuja, also blamed the recent surge in kidnappings in some border communities of the FCT to lack of equipment to track criminals.

He, however, assured residents that the security challenges would soon be addressed following the approval for emergency procurement by President Bola Tinubu.

He said that the approval was for the procurement of digital tracking tools and operational vehicles to help halt kidnappers in their tracks.

“So many facilities were not provided and vehicles for the security agencies are not there.

“You cannot believe that equipment to track criminals are not there and when anything happens, security agencies go back to the Office of the National Security Adviser or to the Force Headquarters.

“That is not the way it is supposed to be,” minister said.

According to him, security agencies need special equipment to be able to reduce the level of crime, particularly those that will help them to track specific locations of phone users.

He said that the FCT Administration had been able to identify what each of the security agencies needed and would be provided through the emergency procurement.

“Again, before we came on board, the police had said that they had requested procurement of a certain number of motorcycles where vehicles cannot get to – the remote areas. Some of these areas are mountainous.

“Unfortunately, the motorcycles were not provided, but we have been able to do that now,” he said.

Wike, who said security was not only about equipment, added that the personnel needed motivation.

According to him, this needs to be worked out to ensure success of security operations.

He added that the FCTA would also establish a Joint Task Force with a full command and control structure and well equipped to respond in security emergencies.

“The next thing is to set up a joint security outfit here, where they have their own structure and equipment so that if anything happens, the task force will know it is its function and move in.

“Yes, it will cost us some funds and it will take us some time, but what is important is that we have identified that this is a lacuna that we have to cover’’, the minister said.  (NAN)

Edited by Deji Abdulwahab