FCTA warns residents against boarding taxis from unauthorised parks

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has warned residents against patronising cabs from unauthorised taxi parks in the nation’s capital.

This followed the recent public outcry against the upsurge of criminal activities popularly known as “One Chance”.

Addressing journalists after a clean-up exercise in Abuja, the Director, Department of Road Transport Service (DRTS), Abdulateef Bello, said plans were in the pipeline to bring a lasting solution to the insecurity challenges faced by road users.

“’One chance’ is a criminal activity, you know, and for sure, you know, people are taking advantage of the fact that we have transportation issues. You know, we don’t have an effective mass transportation service on the ground for now.

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“So people are taking advantage of that, because like I said, this business is a product of demand and supply. People are out to move from one place to the other, and they need vehicles to do that.

“So, people are taking advantage of that, but the transportation secretariat at the moment has come up with a programme to ensure that our public transportation issues are fixed.

“Any moment from now, you’ll be seeing new buses or new arrangements for taxis that will run our commuter services. But in the time being, we have identified some critical areas that are red flag areas.”

Bello said the perpetrators of ‘one chance’ operate from vulnerable areas which he listed as including AYA junction and some parts of the Central Area where there is no transportation outlet

“We have arrested like four or five of them with dangerous weapons. Their vehicles are here and we are going to hand them over to the police and then, like I said, we will continue to chase them until we fix our transportation issues, and then make Abuja safe for everybody to stay,” he added.