UNIJOS Gradutae, Civil Servant Among 180 Beggars Taken Off Streets Of Anambra

                                  

 

 

Graduate of Linguistic University of Jos , Rose Ali and a Civil Servant with Ministry of Environment Anambra state were among the 180 beggars taken off the major streets of Anambra state yesterday by the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.

 

Just as over 150 parents caught yesterday using their children for begging in major cities in the state would be prosecuted by the Anambra state government in the family court. 

 

As well over 185 beggars and destitute taken off the major cities of the state will undergo rehabilitation and empowerment before those not from Anambra state will be repatriated in an arrangement with their state government through the Ministries of Women Affairs and social development.

 

Director of Social Welfare in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Lady Rose Udeagbara announced this during the 2014 beggars and destitute raid yesterday.

 

Udeagbara informed that majority of the over 180 beggars taken off the streets in the major cities of Awka, Amawbia, Enugwu-Ukwu, Abagana, Ogidi, Nkpor, Onitsha, Nnobi and Nnewi, Ekwulobia and Umunze were not from Anambra state. She said findings showed most of them are from Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Yobe, Plateau and other northern states while others are from Cross River, Abia, Rivers, Imo as well as Ebonyi and Enugu states.

 

Apart from over 50 children taken off the street from begging, a Civil servant with the Ministry of Environment  Anambra state, a graduate of Linguistic from University of Jos were among the over 180 taken off the streets.

 

Lady Udeagbara led the delegation of campaign against begging and taking off the beggars and destitute off the streets, and lamented the rampant usage of children by their parents to beg to make money for their upkeep.

 

She claimed that men of the underworld in Onitsha use begging as a strategy to carry out their devilish activities at night stressing that the Anambrarians among them will be trained to acquire skill on tailoring, shoemaking, cooking and home management, breed making among others. The training empowerment she said is not restricted to indigenes but the non indigenes would be in consultation with their home states after rehabilitation.

 

One of the beggars, Mrs. Rose Ali who refused arrest, insisted that Governor Peter Obi must come himself to promise her employment as a graduate before she can leave the road even when she is not from the state.

 

The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Lady Henrietta Azuka Agbata advised parents to desist from using their children as a money making venture.

 

Agbata said , “It is not right to use a child for begging and whenever we get such case, we get at those parents through their children and charge them to state family court. I see such parents as very lazy parents. Let us stop abusing these children and stop trampling on their rights. Let us strive to send them to school, so that they will be beneficial to us and the society.”

Commissioner Agbata further explained that the raid on beggars is Governor Peter Obi’s effort to not only sanitize the state but to empower some of them frustrations led to begging as well as to ensure free flow of traffics on our roads adding that the sick ones among them will be given free medicare.

 

 Later at the rehabilitation camp,  Lady Udeagbara vented anger on one Mrs. Nkechinyere Okeke, who is using her daughter, Ginika Okeke to beg, “This woman was taken off the street last year in Awka. We rehabilitated her and out of the magnanimity of the state government, she was employed as a staff of Anambra State Waste Management Agency (ASWAMA) in the Ministry of Environment to help her train her child. But, she is stubborn, after all that, she is still begging with that child” she lamented.

 

The beggar Okeke admitted the allegation that she is being arrested for the second time but says she is begging to pay her child’s balance of N80,000 and urged the state government to assist her, allegation  viewed to be untrue as she did not explain what the money is for.

Another beggar, Loveday Okonkwo from Imo state said he is begging to raise N50,000, he will use to register at Disabled Craft Centre, Ikeja Lagos admitting that begging is illegal while Rose Ali from Nimo but a graduate of UNIJOS who has partial blindness insisted on seeing Gov. Obi.