Tough time awaits beggars

Tough time awaits beggars, hawkers and others who engage in unwholesome acts if the bills before the National Assembly proposed by the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Administration is anything to go by.

Beggars alongside the street

Linda Okoro resides in Lagos and during a documentary on the Federal Capital Territory, FCT; she fell in love with the city and decided to pay a visit. She actually saw all that were displayed on television but was disappointed to see beggars, hawkers littered in some parts of the city.

Abuja is considered to be one of the most beautiful modern cities in the world but it has been battling with the challenge of beggars, destitutes, commercial sex workers and street trading due to the influx of people from different parts of the world.

The FCT Administration has been faced with the challenges of maintaining the city a model as it was originally conceived but the activities of beggars and hawkers whose presence in all the nooks and crannies of the city constitute an eyesore.

Efforts to get rid of the menace by past administration have proved abortive as they keep increasing by the day. The FCTA once assembled beggars in the territory at a centre where they were taken care but lack of continuity forced them to return to the streets.

The FCT Administration also recently warned sex workers to relocate or face the law. Some were taken to rehabilitation centre where they were taught a trade but more are still littered on the streets of Abuja.

Meanwhile, Samuel Musa of the Information department of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB said the little fine on hawkers, beggars and others are the reasons why they always back on the street.

He claimed that when they are arrested and charged to court, they are sent free with a fine of between N500 and N1,000. He noted that some of the beggars and hawkers have been arrested several times.

Recent records showed that 34 beggars and 67 hawkers were arrested last weekend. He disclosed that a bill is before the National Assembly to review the fine for defaulters. “Once the bill is passed, the beggars and hawkers won’t be on the road again.”

Fashola, Lagos state governor

Musa also revealed that a woman, who pretends to have breast cancer, has been convicted several times. “She was arrested last week again,” he noted.

Investigation revealed that negligence on the part of previous governments made the business of begging in the FCT very lucrative. During Mallam Nasir el-Rufai administration, efforts were made to rid the streets of destitute. They were moved to a resettlement centre in Karamajiji, a location along the airport road and paid stipends of N4,000 for their upkeep.

But after the expiration of el-Rufai tenure in 2007, the successive government stopped the payment of stipends which saw them (beggars) returning to the city again.

We gathered that the beggars were complaining of non-payment of their stipends and were forced to return to the streets rather than die of starvation.

Recent visit round the territory shows that beggars and hawkers are littered around Julius Berger junction, Wuse, AYA Asokoro side, Federal Secretariat areas, and anywhere where there are traffic build-ups.

Musa of the AEPB once said that their men, taskforce teams were attacked by beggars and hawkers with different weapons especially when they come for their arrests.

In satellite towns, like Kubwa, Lugbe-Airport road, Karu Site, Nyanya-Mararaba on Abuja-Keffi Road, number of street kids, hawkers and prostitutes are seen along the highway and major streets carrying out their illicit activities. Their presence is a major source of concern to residents as they constitute nuisance on the highway and causing traffic snarls.

On assumption of office, the current minister of FCT, Senator Bala Muhammed repatriated beggars and others from territory to their various states and were warned not to return to the city but after the FCTA went to sleep, beggars, and even hawkers have returned in great numbers.

Children also not left out of the begging business

A staff in the FCTA confided in our correspondent that it is difficult to rid the city of beggars, destitute, hawkers including sex workers because most of them are relatives of politicians in Abuja.

He claimed that whenever they are arrested, they send their personal assistants or special assistants to come and bail them before they are even charged to court. He gave instance where they arrested sex workers at Garki II and when the ladies put a call to their “customer”, on getting to their office, a government official sent his personal assistant, who came in a government vehicle, bailed the ladies.

Investigation has also revealed that some beggars came to the territory to pray during Jumaat service (Muslim) and decided to stay back. An Islamic cleric, who spoke on anonymity, once condemned the activities of the beggars who come in their numbers to beg every Friday.

Recall that recently in Lagos, in a new dimension in the war against begging, the Special Offences Court in Alausa area of Ikeja, Lagos, sent 30 beggars to Kirikiri and Badagry Prisons for soliciting for alms and other offences.

The Lagos State Government charged them to court for constituting nuisance in public by begging for alms. The government says it is no longer going to be business as usual as it has vowed to prosecute erring beggars on the streets of Lagos. The Attorney General of Lagos State was the prosecutor in the case. Some of the count charges against the beggars included conducting themselves as disorderly persons without visible means of livelihood and thus committed an offence under the criminal law of Lagos State.

They were also charged with conducting themselves in a manner likely to cause breach of peace and for receiving, demanding and collecting dues or unauthorised levy from persons and thus committed offence punishable under the law on illegal collection of dues in public places.

The beggars, 30 in number pleaded guilty to the offences and were consequently sent to Kirikiri and Badagry Prisons for one month pending when the final judgment would be delivered by the judge. Nine of them, as a result of their disabilities were rejected by prison officials and were then taken to the Lagos State Rehabilitation Home, Majidun, Ikorodu on the outskirts of Lagos.

Some of the beggars prosecuted, were said to have attacked government officials during a rampage at the Lagos State Rehabilitation Home, Majidun, the place where they were being rehabilitated. Thirteen other beggars were also arraigned on Friday by the government at the same Special Offences Court. Three of the beggars were sentenced to 72 hours community service or pay a fine of N5,000, while 10 others were sentenced to three months imprisonment or pay fine of N10,000 each. Three others were sentenced directly to 72 hours community service without an option of fine.

Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State on Youth and Social Development, Dr. Dolapo Badru said government decided to begin prosecution of beggars because it had exhausted its patience with the beggars. “We still rehabilitate some of them, but most of them don’t want to be rehabilitated and they don’t want to work. They feel more comfortable preying on people with superstitious beliefs. Some people believe that if they are unlucky in certain cases or looking for certain ways to make it in life, what they need to do is to give alms to beggars so that their fortune can change. Some believe that if someone debars their progress in life, what they need to do is to give money to beggars to change their fortune. Lots of beggars now prey on these people’s superstitious beliefs to get money from them. Many of them pretend to be blind, crippled, among others. They make more money than many people gainfully employed.”

Beggars on rampage recently

Badru added that the cosmopolitan nature of Lagos had made it possible for barons to ship beggars to the metropolis to beg for alms, making lots of money, stressing that many of them felt so comfortable begging for alms on roads.

Some environmental experts believe that government has failed in its responsibility of keeping the beggars and destitute off the streets of Abuja. They are of the opinion that the FCT administration should brace up to the challenge by working round the clock towards enforcing relevant environmental laws in order to keep the city clean.