BY DAVID ADUGE-ANI, ABUJA
The Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command, Olusola Odumosu Ph.D, said that many scavengers in the nation’s capital work as informants for armed robbers, kidnappers, hired assassins, terrorists, bandits and all sorts of criminal gangs.
Odumosu, who disclosed this on Friday when he paraded 37 scavengers, arrested across the city centre, and the suburbs of Abuja, noted that many families have fallen victims of kidnapping, abduction for ransom, murder, assassination, because the scavengers gave information about the victims.
He added that the scavengers also assess and profile residents through the kind of household waste products they dispose which in most cases reveals their status and lifestyles.
The NSCDC-FCT Commandant stated that scavengers are major suspects to most disappearances in the homes, adding that they also carry out these activities whenever they noticed that there is no one in sight, but not without wielding dangerous weapons in case they are busted by the house owners.
According to him, “The most vital is that many of them work as informants for armed robbers, kidnappers, hired assassins, terrorists, bandits and all sorts of criminal gangs.
Many families have fallen victims of kidnapping, abduction for ransom, murder, assassination and the likes because they give information about your family, the number of children you have, the types of cars you drive, where you work and by extension, keeping tabs on your movement.
They also assess and profile you through the kind of household waste products you dispose which in most cases reveals your status and lifestyles.”
He, therefore, called on residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to join hands with the Corps and other security agencies to flush out these dangerous elements in the FCT by chasing scavengers away whenever they are seen, either in front of your houses, your streets, neighbourhood or in the estates.
“It is therefore imperative that citizens and residents join hands with the Corps and other security agencies to flush out these dangerous elements in the FCT by chasing scavengers away whenever you see them in front of your houses, your streets, neighbourhood or estates.
The public should note that, although, they appear innocent, armless and vulnerable, most of them are extremely dangerous, their activities are criminal in nature and they constitute threats not only to the safety and security of lives, property and infrastructure in the FCT but to Nigeria’s National Security architecture as a whole.
Unfortunately, and in most cases, many of us perceive these miscreants and criminals as ordinary innocent, poor Nigerians, hustling for their daily bread so they move about unchecked and unquestioned by anyone.
Some of us even sympathize with them, by extending alms to them, whereas, they are responsible for the various crimes happening around you”, he said.