FCT: Bus terminals built to curb ‘one-chance’ robberies remain inactive six months after inauguration
By Daylight
February 7, 2026
Abuja image
Bus terminals located in Kugbo, an industrial area in Abuja, and Mabushi, an upmarket district in the city, have largely turned into decorative structures, months after their inauguration by President Bola Tinubu.
On June 17, 2025, the Mabushi bus terminal was presented with pride as the city’s first of its kind. Tinubu, who was represented by Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, said the bus terminal would bring order, safety, and accountability to public transportation in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Chinedum Elechi, mandate secretary of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) transportation secretariat, said the facility was designed for both intercity and intracity commuting and featured food courts, cinemas, public convenience, nursing rooms, escalators, CCTV facilities, ATMs for money transactions, and more.
Elechi added that the Mabushi bus terminal would operate on a 24-hour basis with a dedicated power supply and adequate provision of water for both sanitary and safety purposes. For Mabushi residents, whose eyes twinkled with hope, the bus station promised not only a major upgrade to the area but also relief from chronic transportation and traffic challenges in the fast-developing district. However, that renewed hope soon began to fade as the buzz died down and operations stalled.
The pattern was repeated in Kugbo. Following the inauguration of the Kugbo station, Elechi said the terminal would serve Kugbo, Karu, Karshi, Nyanya, Mararaba, and surrounding towns, offering organised transportation for the thousands of daily commuters in and around the nation’s capital.
The FCTA transportation secretariat official said the terminal was equipped with a 500-capacity departure lounge, three staircases, escalators, a family room for nursing mothers, a cinema, shops, and convenience rooms for both males and females and the physically challenged, as well as a praying space for Muslims.
He added that the bus station had a 200-bus capacity, a 500kva transformer, and a standby 500 KVA generator, as well as a 90,000 litres of water tank available and full air-conditioning.
Like Mabushi, the FCTA said the bus terminal would operate for 24 hours. Neither has operated for an hour to date.
IDLE BUSES, CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTURE
Missing ceilings and roofing materials hanging loosely overhead were visible at the Kugbo bus terminal during TheCable’s visit.
The deserted station sparkled, thanks to two women who had just completed their cleaning duties and walked out of the terminal before it was locked again. At the gate, a young woman dressed in an all-black, mufti-style uniform, with “Special Forces” emblazoned on her shirt, stood guard. It was unclear which security service unit she belonged to. The woman, who declined to identify herself, told TheCable she was under strict instructions from her superiors not to allow anyone into the facility. She later called her “boss”, a younger man who identified himself as Bishop. Bishop echoed her position, adding that his own superiors were officials of the FCTA.
“We were asked not to let anybody in,” he said. “If you want to enter, they are supposed to call us from FCTA first to say you are coming, but because nobody called us, we cannot let you in.”
At TheCable’s request, Bishop placed a call to his superior, from whom we sought permission to enter the station, but the request was denied. The woman who spoke on the phone said elections were approaching and described the period as “delicate”. She did not identify herself.
An official familiar with the terminal operations, however, offered TheCable an explanation for the secrecy surrounding the public building.
“Since they commissioned this project, there has been no vehicle. They brought security; they were not paying them, and they left,” the official said.
“If it’s raining, water will be leaking everywhere; you’d be surprised, like they never roofed the building. The work is not standard. Enter inside, and you’ll see many cracks.
“They brought one local security guard because some people, who came the first time, stole some ACs inside because there was no security. It’s so painful. Nobody will tell you anything about it because there are no workers; everywhere is locked.
“They don’t want to let you in because they don’t want you to video inside. There are so many things that are not good for people to see. If it gets out, the security in charge will be implicated. Nobody is happy with what is going on.”
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Asked to confirm whether the facility was equipped with the amenities touted at the inauguration, the official said there was “nothing like that”.
“The way you see it outside (deserted) is the same skeleton you will see inside. Just upstairs with demarcations like a bank,” the source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the matter, said.
The Mabushi terminal boasted a more impressive exterior, and the presence of four CNG buses hinted at promise. But locals told TheCable they had long since lost faith in it.
Like Kugbo, the terminal was manned by a woman in a uniform crested with “Special Forces”. Unlike her counterpart in Kugbo, the Mabushi guardwoman was asleep under the hot sun, leaving the station unlocked and her mouth open to the dry air, only waking when this reporter greeted her. She immediately chased the reporter out, citing a serious breach of FCTA rules.
Juliet, a small-scale food vendor just in front of the Kugbo bus terminal, looked forward to the opening of the station with the belief that the influx of people into the facility would boost her business. It was the fastest time she had seen the government complete a project.
When Tinubu, represented by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, attended the terminal’s inauguration, he said the station would “in no small measure, contribute to my government’s determination to turn around the fortunes of our people”.
Juliet was excited. On a good day, she could make around N20,000 from selling fried yams and noodles; on a bad day, about N12,000. The vendor was optimistic that her sales would triple once thousands began flocking to the terminal, but that hope has lingered for six months.
“They told us they would open it before the end of January, but up till now, nothing,” she told TheCable.
Thomas, a vulcaniser, stationed just beside Juliet, sighed while she complained about the delay in the terminal’s kick-off operations. He said that while construction was ongoing, he had hoped to pick up side work as a labourer at the terminal, but was unsuccessful, accusing the contractors of only using their own workers. Now, he dreams of becoming a registered vulcaniser for buses at the terminal, but he has no idea when that might happen.
ERADICATION OF ONE-CHANCE ROBBERY: RESIDENTS AWAIT MANIFESTATION OF FG PROMISES
During the inauguration, Tinubu said the bus stations would curtail one-chance incidents.
Juliet was once a victim of “one chance”, a type of robbery common in Abuja in which unsuspecting passengers are lured into commercial vehicles whose occupants are robbers. Some get killed, while others are pushed out of the moving vehicle after they have been dispossessed of their belongings. This became a common occurrence in the nation’s capital due to a lack of centralised and coordinated public transportation system.
“At the swearing-in of my government two years ago, I swore to uphold and defend the 1999 Constitution and its people. With the security reports on the several menaces of one-chance robberies, kidnapping and thuggery that characterised public transportation in Mabushi, I directed the FCT Minister Wike to put in place measures to address that situation,” the president said.
“Here and now, you will find an organised system where vehicles and drivers are properly identified and registered, significantly reducing the risk associated with the normal informal transportation.”
Wike also reiterated that the critical infrastructure will check the ‘one-chance’ menace when in operation.
Olatunji Disu, former FCT commissioner of police, said 263 one-chance robbery cases were reported in 2024. Many of the cases were fatal, Disu noted. Data for the number of one-chance cases in 2025 has yet to be released by the police, but there have been a number of notable incidents.
Freda Arnong, a staff member of the Ghana High Commission in Abuja, died after being abducted and assaulted by one-chance operators in July 2025.
In October of the same year, a one-chance robbery syndicate killed a 23-year-old woman who boarded a commercial vehicle operated by the criminal gang while returning home from work. The deceased was a fuel-pump attendant.
In the same month, the FCT police announced the arrests of four suspects involved in a one-chance robbery and attempted kidnapping of two residents. Police recovered 15 international passports, two sharp daggers, two cutlasses, bloodstained documents, four mobile phones, two hammers, and three biros from the suspects.
One of the latest incidents happened in January when suspected “one chance” robbers killed Chinemerem Chuwumeziem, a nurse in Abuja, after she concluded her afternoon shift at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) and boarded a commercial vehicle.
CURRENT REALITIES
Boarding a commercial car from Mararaba to Area 1 or Berger costs between N500 and N700, areas notable for frequent one-chance attacks. From Mararaba to Jikwoyi costs around N500. For residents coming from Area 1, Kugbo is a stop before Mararaba.
Mabushi to Area 1, including a stop at Banex, costs around N700.
FCT residents told TheCable they hoped that the government would slash the prices by half when operations at the bus terminals commence.
The Central Area, which houses the federal secretariat and key ministries that residents frequently commute to, is another popular drop-off point.
It is also home to the city’s third bus terminal, which was still under construction when TheCable visited.
On May 14, 2024, the federal executive council (FEC) approved a N51 billion contract for Planet Projects, the firm behind the construction of the bus terminals in Kugbo, Mabushi, and Central Area.
Lere Olayinka, media aide to Nyesom Wike, FCT minister, did not respond to TheCable’s calls or texts inquiring about the stall in the commencement of operations of the bus terminals in Mabushi and Kugbo.
Anthony Ogunleye, FCTA director of the department of information and communication, referred TheCable to the transportation secretariat for comments on the matter.
The transportation secretariat did not respond to TheCable’s request for comments. Thecable
But a Planet Projects worker, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak, said operations would take off upon completion of the bus terminal in the Central Area.
When asked for the expected completion date, the worker said “very soon”.
