The FCT minister,
Bala Muhammed, has warned against the intrusion of the FCT Vocational
and Rehabilitation Centre at Kuchiko, located in the Bwari local
government area, by the destitute.
The minister gave this warning at Kuchiko after inaugurating the centre for people living with disabilities and minors.
“It is a
fundamental issue I want the FCTA secretariat to take note of: that
people arrested are not supposed to come here within the next two,
three weeks. You have to get the place fenced up.
“We should have a
transit camp for those arrested; you shouldn’t bring them to an
institution where we are going to have enrollment; where we are going
to have partnership with similar organisations within the sub-region
and even within the world.
“You don’t bring
arrested destitutes, beggars, street hawkers into this place again. Get
a place, no matter how remote. In the next one week I want to see the
place,” the minister told government officials.
A school, not a prison
Earlier, Bala
Tsofo, the principal of the vocational centre, decried the attitude of
environmental officials who arrested people and brought them to the
centre instead of trying them at a mobile court.
“One thing that
baffles me is that when environmental officials arrest people, mad
people and the destitute, they bring them down to me and if this place
is an institution I see no way they will bring them to me,” he said. Mr
Tsofo stressed that nobody should be arrested and brought into the
school, pointing out that students collected forms and had applied for
studies there.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the centre had been
shut for five years before it was inaugurated by the FCT minister. It
comprises basic facilities like a sick bay, a fish pond, poultry, shoe
production, electronics, tailoring, and metal works workshops as well
as a computer department.
