As part of its efforts towards strengthening law enforcement and compliance in the territory, The Federal Capital Territory Executive Committee (FCT EXCO) has approved the establishment of a new department of investigation and prosecution to be situated in the legal services secretariat.

The creation of the new department is one of the decisions reached at its 18th meeting held Monday, at the FCTA banquet hall, Gwarinpa I District (Life-Camp), Abuja.

EXCO stated that the new department is expected to carry out investigations in respect of forgery of land documents, fraudulent transactions on land, abuse of office, allegations of bribery, general corrupt practices, security breaches and other cases of infractions within the FCTA as the need arises in liaison with relevant law enforcement agencies.

It further stated that the new department is to carry out investigations of petitions, requests from individuals, groups of persons, corporate bodies, and law enforcement agencies among others.

According to EXCO, the department is to keep records and data of investigated cases and monitor those still under investigation by law enforcement and security agencies in the FCTA.

It is also expected to assist and advise the law enforcement and security agencies in their investigations on matters affecting the FCTA as well as carry out the training of personnel of the department in conjunction with the various law enforcement and security agencies.

The EXCO, therefore, directed the new department to initiate criminal and quasi-criminal proceedings on all matters affecting the FCT Administration after the consent of the Attorney General of the Federation has been sought and obtained.

Meanwhile, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has charged the new Assistant Inspector General of Police for Zone 7, Aliyu Garba and the new FCT Commissioner of Police, Garba Haruna to work in synergy to combat crime and criminality in the FCT.

The Minister made this call while receiving both officers who paid him an introductory visit in his office on Monday.

While stressing the need for synergy among all the security agencies in combating crime, he advised his guests to utilize the support of all the security apparatus based in the FCT to achieve the best result.

He assured them that: “We will continue to provide you with support, in terms of logistics, hardware and even transportation.”

He added that: “In fighting crimes, what has worked for us in the FCT is the joint task force that we have, where all the security agencies are involved. The Military, Police, DSS, Civil Defense and other paramilitary agencies like Immigration, Customs, NDLEA and even NAPTIP because some of these criminal activities tend to go together.”

In his remarks, AIG Aliyu Garba also agreed that there was a need for synergy among security agencies and community leaders while also emphasizing the need for proper intelligence gathering and sharing.

He said that as part of measures to check crimes the Zone 7 Command has intensified efforts to sustain a massive onslaught on identified black spots as well as increased night patrols.

Garba solicited support from the FCTA, especially in the training of police personnel and the provision of technology devices to combat crime in the zone.

Also speaking, the new FCT CP, Haruna G. Garba who solicited the support of the FCT Administration in fighting crimes in the territory urged residents to, on their part, divulge credible information to the police to help fight crime, stressing the need for them to ‘say something’ when they see something.”

He emphasized the need for raids to fish out criminals and check crimes, adding that more effort would be put into the raiding of known criminal hideouts and black spots. (Nigerian Tribune)

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