President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has called on Nigerians to stop showing mercy to Abuja beggars.
Specifically, the FCT Administration (FCTA) has appealed to Nigerians to stop giving alms to beggars on the streets of Abuja. Sani Amar, the director of social welfare services at the FCTA Social Development Secretariat, made the appeal at a news conference on Thursday.
Mr Amar explained that the secretariat had intensified efforts to rid the territory of “environmental nuisance,” including street begging, prostitution, child labour, drug peddling and kidnapping.
The secretariat’s task force recently apprehended a 48-year-old beggar, Hadiza Ibrahim, with N500,000 and $100.
Ms Hadiza was caught at M&U Junction on Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent in Wuse II.
The FCTA director stated that giving alms to beggars on the streets was causing “environmental nuisance” in the nation’s capital city.
“You can imagine somebody dishing out $100 as alms to a beggar, not knowing that such (a) person had more than that amount on her. Won’t the beggar return to the same location?” he reasoned. “We have established colonies and settlements of real people who are in dire need of such support either in cash or in kind.”
(NAN)