120 beggars jailed, 1,708 repatriated

Lagos State Government yesterday said about 120 beggars and the destitute had been jailed in the last one year, while about 3,114 others were arrested during raids.
The Special Adviser to the governor on Youth and Social Development, Dr. Dolapo Badru, disclosed this while briefing journalists at a ministerial press conference at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja.

Badru also said that 1,708 beggars had been sent from Lagos State to their various states and countries.

He said the state would not allow anyone living with disabilities to bend the law when they flouted the law.

The special adviser disclosed that those arrested and repatriated were picked up from the streets, highways and overhead bridges in the state.

Justifying the clampdown on beggars, Badru noted that the present administration respected People’s rights.

Condemning reactions from some civil society organisations, he noted that beggars often attack law enforcement agents when trying to enforce the law on them.

He said: “Nearly every day when my men go on enforcement, this same set of people draw up daggers and knives and maim my staff, they stab them, bite them and defecate on them just to evade arrest because they have broken the law and when such a person is taken to court to be convicted, a person sits down in his air-conditioned office and rains abuses on us for doing what is right.”

Badru added that not all those convicted and jailed were truly beggars, saying that some of them were armed robbers operating in traffic under the guise of begging for alms.

The special adviser explained that the 1,708 beggars and destitute ejected from the state were either transferred to their states of origin, or repatriated to their countries for reintegration.

He said: “In the last one year, a total number of 3,114 beggars, destitute and mentally- challenged were rescued in day and night operations.

“About 2,695 were taken to the Rehabilitation and Training Centre, Owutu, Ikorodu, where the state government has made provisions for facilities to help in turning the lives of the destitute/beggars around, while the mentally unstable are given medical attention.

“Forty-eight children and toddlers were transferred to the Child Protection Unit; another 48 street children cleaning wind shields at traffic lights were rescued and transferred to the Special Correctional Centre for Boys, Oregun; eight were transferred to the Child Transit Home, Idi-Araba, while 315 Persons (203 male and 54 female) suspected to be criminals were however handed over to the Task Force for prosecution.