Minister, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesome Wike has said that starting from January 2025, all commercial buses in the nation’s capital Abuja will be profiled by the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services (DSS).

The minister made this known at the ‘FCT Renewed Hope Youth Empowerment Programme’ in Abuja on Thursday when he handed over some new cars to beneficiaries to use as taxis.

According to him, “They are not paying a dime. No; the government is saying this is our support to feed your family and reduce the cost of transportation in the city… Abuja should compete with other cities in the world”.

He encouraged the beneficiaries not to be ashamed that they are being empowered to be taxi drivers, saying that many Nigerians who reject taxi driving jobs at home gladly embrace such when they travel abroad.

In order to curtail kidnapping and cases of ‘one-chance’ robbery, the minister said effective January 2025, any commercial bus not duly profiled by security agencies won’t be allowed to operate within the nation’s capital.

Furthermore, he said that “Most of the Keke Napep and most of the motorcycles are informants. Everybody here that is a beneficiary is being profiled by the security.

“And so what we are coming up with is that from January next year, there will be nobody that will operate as a taxi driver or a bus driver without having approval from security, with security profiling you and without going about with Abuja colour.

“Nothing like using any vehicle on the road. No, we won’t allow that. From January, we won’t allow that.

We will take the vehicle number, name of the drivers and the rest so everybody will have confidence that this is the vehicle I’m entering in case anything happens.”