The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike says his administration won’t leave any stone unturned in the quest to make the nation’s seat of power secure.

Bandits and other criminal elements have in recent months held sway in some parts of the FCT, killing and kidnapping others.

But Wike told a gathering at the flag off of the construction of Paikon-Kore Road in the Gwagwalada area of the FCT that his administration is on course to flush out criminals.

“I have assured you before that we are going to take this fight against headlong. Today, you can see that we are not letting them go. I told you all these criminals will run away,” he said on Thursday.

“We will make sure they don’t sleep again. If they say we will not sleep, they too will not sleep. A child that says the mother will not sleep, will he sleep? So, we are taking the war to head on. Let them wait for us, they will see fire for fire,” Wike, who is the immediate past Rivers State Governor, added.

President Bola Tinubu came to power last year promising to address insecurity in Nigeria, including jihadists in the North-East, criminal militias in the North-West and a flareup of intercommunal violence in central states — but critics say the violence is out of control.

Nigerian risk consultancy SBM Intelligence said it had recorded 3,964 people abducted in Nigeria since Tinubu took office in May.

At the start of the year, criminals abducted five young sisters near the capital Abuja, and killed one of them when a ransom deadline passed, sparking national outrage.

Some experts believe the country’s economic situation is driving a rise in kidnappings as desperate Nigerians turn to crime for income.