Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

Kwara State Government has evacuated 94 beggars from the streets of Ilorin, the state capital.

The government however said that, the evacuated beggars will be prosecuted and repatriated after proper profiling.

The evacuation of the beggars from the streets according to THISDAY checks might not be unconnected with the reported cases of insecurity in the state.

It was learnt that most of the beggars’ abode had been allegedly used as take off points for criminals to perpetrate their nefarious activities in the state.

The evacuation and planned repatriation of the street beggars, including 43 females and 51 males, was coordinated by the State Commissioner for Social Welfare and Development, Dr Mariam Nnafatima Imam.

The exercise also involved the Special Assistant to the Governor on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control, Mikail Aileru, officers of the National Correctional Services in the state and the officials of the ministry which took them to popular locations as Geri Alimi, Tanke Junction, Offa Garage, Tipper Garage and Zango, among others.

Speaking with journalists during the exercise yesterday in Ilorin, the State Commissioner for Social Welfare and Development, Dr. Mariam Nnafatima Imam, said the state government had done two repatriation exercises of street beggars before now, adding that street begging is not allowed in Kwara state.

“We are actually repatriating and evacuating the streets beggars. The reason is that we’ve made a lot of jingles before now to sensitise the public and make sure that they are well informed that street begging is a no-no in Kwara State.

“And we’ve done about two repatriations before now where we evacuated the streets beggars.

“Also, one thing we do is that we have the ministry magistrate where they are served sentence for one week or depending on the kind of punishment that is stipulated.

“For the children, we make sure that we take care of them till the period when the parents finish their terms of community service activities.

“We are in collaboration with the correctional centre and they’ve been doing a lovely job for us. We sincerely appreciate them.

“We sincerely appreciate the administration of Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for his effort to make sure that Kwara State is free of street begging and street hawking and other social menace that is around us,” she said.

Imam said that the state government was always in touch with the state governments of the street beggars before they were returned to their respective states.

She admonished members of the public, who she said patronise the street beggars to desist, saying that, “You know, people want to give alms. So, if you want to give alms, there are better ways to give alms. Go to mosques or churches, go to the orphanage homes, go to centres where people truly need assistance. Stop patronising beggars.

“We want to urge the public to please refrain from patronising the beggars. It’s a menace in the society.”

Also speaking, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Drug Abuse, Prevention and Control, Haliru Olamilekan Mikail said that most of the people that portray themselves as beggars peddle drugs.

He said, “This exercise is not just about street begging alone. It’s about the security of our people. Some of the people are informants.

“These days, we talk about kidnapping and all that. They are not just there to beg for money.

“Do you know that some people brought them there to work for them? So this is why, as much as we are clamping down on street begging, we are making sure that our society is safe.

“We’ve done the advocacy on radio. There are a lot of information on radio and on the social media. It’s a continuous process.”

For his part, Head of Non-Custodian Unit, Nigeria Correctional Service Kwara State Command, Mr Adebayo Okunola, explained that the exercise was to clean the state of social menace while those arrested and tried by the appropriate court will be punished in line with the Correctional Act 2019.

“We have Correctional Act 2019 which empowered us that offences which are not criminal in nature are sentenced to non correctional service.

“The head of the Correctional Service Sylvester Ndidi Nwakuche has mandated us to collaborate with the Kwara State Government to ensure that those arrested and tried by appropriate court are sentenced to non custodian unit. Then, we will ensure that they undergo punitive measures like sweeping gutters,” Okunola added.

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