The Federal Capital Territory Administration has disclosed that a total of 607 beggars and mentally challenged persons have been removed from the streets of Abuja between July 2025 and now, as part of sustained efforts to sanitise the nation’s capital.
The Head of Enforcement at the FCT Social Development Secretariat, Mrs Ukachi Adebayo, made this known on Monday during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja. She explained that the operation was carried out by the Operation Sweep Abuja Clean team.
According to Adebayo, “out of the 607 persons evacuated, 583 were beggars while 23 were mentally challenged individuals.” She said those apprehended were properly counselled and documented before being returned to their respective states of origin in collaboration with state governments through their liaison offices in Abuja.
She explained that the process begins with counselling and profiling of the individuals to determine their backgrounds and needs. “What we do when we apprehend the beggars and mentally challenged individuals is to counsel them so as to profile them. After that, we take them to their various liaison offices to be returned to their respective states, where they are expected to undergo rehabilitation,” she said.
Adebayo noted, however, that many of those evacuated often find their way back to the streets, stressing that the enforcement exercise remains continuous. She said, “The more you take them out, the more they resurface. Some of them were driven by insecurity in their states and ran to Abuja to take refuge, but we will continue to apprehend them and take them back.”
Also speaking on the issue, the Acting Director of Social Welfare at the SDS, Mrs Gloria Onwuka, revealed that street begging in Abuja has increasingly become organised and commercialised. She said investigations showed that some children found begging were brought from other states by unidentified individuals who exploit them and collect the proceeds.
Onwuka added that several women arrested while begging with children were not the biological mothers of those children. “Begging is now run like a business. People will go and hire people’s children from other states, put them in vehicles very early in the morning, come to Abuja and start begging. The families they are hiring these children from don’t even know that this is what their children are being used for. We have caught so many of them like that,” she said.
The Secretary of the FCTA Command and Control Centre, Dr Peter Olumuji, further explained that Operation Sweep is a joint security initiative involving multiple security agencies alongside relevant FCT secretariats, departments and agencies. He said the operation was introduced by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to rid Abuja of miscreants, street beggars, scavengers and other criminal elements.
Olumuji said beggars constitute both a nuisance and a security risk in the city, noting that some of them act as informants for criminal networks. He added that “not only that, the beggars and mentally challenged individuals also deface the beauty of the capital city, while some of them become victims of kidnapping for rituals and other negative purposes.”
He emphasised that the exercise remains ongoing and that authorities would continue to clamp down on beggars and other criminal elements whenever they resurface.
The renewed enforcement follows an earlier directive by Wike in October 2024, when he openly declared war on street begging in Abuja, citing growing security concerns and the city’s image. At the time, the minister warned that Abuja was fast turning into a “beggars’ city” and vowed decisive action.
“Let me say clearly now, we have declared war on beggars because Abuja is returning to a beggars’ city. If you know you have a sister or a brother who is a beggar on the road, do something, because from next week, we will carry them; we will take them out of the city. It is embarrassing that people who come into Abuja, the first thing they see are just beggars on the road,” Wike had said.
He further cautioned that some individuals posing as beggars could in fact be criminals. “We will not allow that,” he said, explaining that the operation was aimed at ensuring maximum security so residents could “sleep with their two eyes closed.”
What you should know
The FCTA’s Operation Sweep Abuja Clean is a continuous security and social intervention aimed at removing beggars, mentally challenged persons and other miscreants from the streets of Abuja.
Authorities say the initiative is designed to improve security, restore the city’s image and ensure vulnerable individuals are rehabilitated in their states of origin, even as officials acknowledge the challenge of repeat offenders returning to the capital.
