Street begging to be Abolished in Edo State.
The Edo government has announced that it will begin evacuating street beggars who refuse to accept quality and fulfilling work.
On Monday, Gov. Godwin Obaseki addressed Muslim faithful who were paying a courtesy call to the Government House in Benin City.
Anyone whose children were not in school and were instead begging or trading on the street would be caught and prosecuted, he said.
Obaseki stated that he would ban street begging in the state within the next few weeks or months.
He stated that his administration thinks that every child in the state has the right to a basic education.
“There are many farm settlements, and more hands are required to cultivate the farms,” he explained.
Anyone arrested for street begging would be sent to the farm settlement to work, according to the governor.
He stated that if the beggars refused to work, they would be returned to their original location.
On the issue of insufficient teachers, he stated that his government has hired 3,062 teachers in rural towns to improve the state’s educational system.
Earlier, Alhaji Abdulfatai Enabulele, the Chief Imam of Benin Central Mosque, praised the governor for his administration’s progress.
Enabulele urged Obaseki to adopt immediate and drastic measures to combat the threat of street begging and trading.
He went on to say that the act has the potential to disrupt the state’s calm.
