Posted by By JOSSY IDAM on
Lagos State government has for the umpteenth time swooped on beggars that have made Kano Street in Ebute Metta their haven.
Lagos State government has for the umpteenth time swooped on beggars that have made Kano Street in Ebute Metta their haven.
In a dawn raid on Thursday by a state task force, the destitutes were cleared from the area and relocated to rehabilitation centres.
The raid, Sunday Sun learnt, was in fulfillment of the state government's promise to rid the nation's commercial capital of beggars and destitutes.
Without prior notice, the task force made up of social workers, health and security personnel calmly bundled them and their small wraps of personal belongings to rehabilitation centres at Owutu, Majidun Ikorodu and Oko Baba.
To the beggars - a motley of blind men, amputees, indigent women and children of varied ages - the dislodgement is a rude, forceful eviction from a place they had seen as a 'home,"
A mosque at the entrance of the street formed the nucleus of their existence. Before now, they used to huddle together like a big, happy family and share alms from worshippers at the mosque, sundry gifts from charity organizations and good-spirited individuals.
But barely a day after the raid, some of the beggars surprisingly found their way back to the street. Salisu Audu, a victim of polio, told Sunday Sun he limped back to the street from Oko Baba because 'food small, small" at the centre.
Claiming to be the Seriki (chief) of the beggars, he further said he came to make sure nobody in his domain was maltreated.
He and a bunch of others milling around the mosque for alms said they would go back to Oko Baba to take shelter from the rain.
'The house good. Me I go live inside there," an old woman said between chomping on old, brownish kolanut.
A member of the task force, who pleaded anonymity and said he came to keep an eye on the street for the beggars, told Sunday Sun the state intends to rehabilitate the beggars and send them back to their states.
'Most of them have sent letters to their governors. So, we expect them to come take them and cater for them like we do here. We really tried for them," the task force official said.