FCTA impounds 69 vehicles in Abuja

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has impounded no fewer than 69 vehicles for various offences as part of its continued efforts to make Abuja safe and clean.

The vehicles were impounded by the FCT combined Security Task Force at different locations in Abuja on Monday, October 9, 2023.

Speaking on the development, the Director of the FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Service (DRTS), Abdulatef Bello, said the seizures were in continuation of operations to clean the city of illegal operators of commercial vehicles.

This, according to him, is to improve the security of lives and properties in Abuja.

Bello stated that the vehicles were impounded for offences such as wrong parking, operating ricketier vehicles, number plate violation, and vehicles suspected to belong to one chance operators, among others.

He said the FCT Administration would not rest in its effort to ensure the city was clean from all kinds of nuisance, adding that the owners of the impounded vehicles would be prosecuted by FCT Mobile Court sitting in the premises of the DRTS.

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The DRTS director said three of the vehicle owners, suspected to be one-chance operations, would be handed over to the police for prosecution.

Bello, however, attributed the high number of casualties of once-chance operators to the ineffectiveness of the mass transportation system in Abuja.

Displaying a sharp object seized from one of the suspected one-chance operators, the Secretary of the FCTA Command and Control Unit, Peter Olumuji, said the administration was working hard to curb the menace.

Olumuji enjoined road users to patronise only painted taxis for their safety, adding that efforts were ongoing to address the transportation deficit in Abuja.

Also speaking, the Director of the Department of Development Control, FCTA, Mukhtar Galadima, equally blamed the high rate of criminalities in Abuja on indiscipline.

Galadima said the FCTA would continue to sensitise road users on the need to be careful when using taxis, so as not to become victims of one-chance operators.

He, therefore, advised residents against patronising unpainted taxis or those without number plates.

The Star