Insecurity: LASG sets up enforcement team to sweep beggars, hawkers off Lagos metropolis

By Moses Adeniyi

The Lagos State Government (LASG) has constituted a special team to launch enforcement operations aimed at sweeping beggars off the streets of the State’s metropolis.

It has been observed that Lagos metropolis has, most recently, been littered with beggars who in their troops have flooded major high ways and interiors of the State.

It was gathered that the task of the team will extend beyond enforcement operation to sanitise the metropolis, to also restoring the dignity of vulnerable persons sent onto the streets for alms begging and hawking.

The team, according to information obtained, would beyond the State’s police command, include social workers, care-givers, and volunteers, with a state-wide operation on daily basis.

According to the State’s Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mr. Olusegun Dawodu, the special team which was set up to tackle the “menace frontally,” will commence operations in the next few days.

The Commissioner, who spoke at the State Capital, Ikeja, on Wednesday during a briefing on the special team set up by the Ministry of Youth and Social Development in conjunction with the State’s police command to curb street begging, said begging and hawking have become instruments of insecurity in the State.

“Beggars on our streets and roads constitute considerable nuisance to law abiding citizens who are entitled to go about their businesses without any fear or hindrance,” he said.

According to him, “street begging” constitute a man-made obstacle to achieving the desired destination of “A Greater Lagos” vision of the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu led Administration.

He mentioned that “as a responsible and responsive government,” the administration will not fold its arms watching “the State become a haven for beggars.”

“Street begging is a social vice that we cannot afford to watch attain uncontrollable level before we act. Otherwise, all the good plans and programmes to transform our state would be adversely affected. The same goes for Street Hawking,” he said.

The Commissioner, who said the menace “has become Big Business to some groups of people,” disclosed that  investigation revealed that beggars and hawkers (children and adults) are transported regularly from other parts of the country to Lagos.

According to him, the sole aim of what he described as an “odious business” has resulted to demeaning humanity and abuse of “innocence in the case of children, who are being pushed into this degrading trade.”

“These groups of people have turned alms begging and hawking into a huge Business by collecting returns from beggars and hawkers, who incidentally, sleep under the bridges, motor parks, uncompleted or abandoned buildings and other places not conducive for human habitation,” he said.

Dawodu, who mentioned that their activities on the streets impede human movement and vehicular traffic,  environmental nuisance and worst still, security threats, said “intelligence reports have revealed that some of the so-called beggars go about with dangerous weapons, they assault and rob innocent Lagosians.”

“Therefore, as a Government, we cannot afford to let this continue. If there is ever a time for us to roll up our sleeves and toil day and night for this menace to be confined to the dustbin of history in Lagos State, it is now,” he said.

Speaking on the strategies of the team, he said “to tackle this menace, the Lagos State Government through the Rehabilitation and Child Development Departments of the Ministry of Youth and Social Development has maintained a Rescue Unit saddled with the responsibility of rescuing and protecting the destitute and the vulnerable.

“This we do by combing the nooks and crannies of Lagos State to rescue and protect the destitute, mentally – challenged, street children and beggars off the streets; and after being rescued, Our Rehabilitation Centres and Child friendly Homes usually provide them with treatment, psychosocial therapy and vocational training with the aim of making them useful to themselves and the society.”

He mentioned that in embarking on the enforcement, the State Government “will also deploy a lot of human and material resources towards enlightenment and sensitisation.”

Giving justification for the operation to clarify legal issues, he quoted Section 157{1(b)and(e) of the State’s Criminal Law 2015, stating that “nuisance is any person who prevents the public from having access to any part of a highway by an excessive and unreasonable use of it or does any unlawful act which causes inconveniences or damage to the public.

“This is also well corroborated by Section 168 {1(b), (e)and (f)} as well as Section 276 which apart from prohibiting begging goes further to prescribe a penalty of N15,000 for the first offence and for every subsequent offence to a time of N45,000 or imprisonment for three months or both, An offender under this Section may be arrested without warrant.”

“In the case of Children, Section 26 of the Childs Right Laws also makes this an offence. And Section 210 (7) prescribes a penalty of ten (10) years imprisonment,” he argued.

For the success of the task, the Commissioner, called on Lagosians to take their alms to recognised and registered homes, orphanages, rehabilitation and faith based organisations where according to him, “will be judiciously utilised for the right purpose of ameliorating the condition of the vulnerable.”

He further solicited the support of religious, traditional, and political leaders at various levels as well as the press in the area of advocacy and enlightenment.

“All hands must be on deck to discourage this inhuman culture of street begging which has the capacity to adversely affect the wellbeing of Lagosians,” he said.

In his remarks, the Commissioner of Police for the State, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, said as a constitutional responsibility, the law against street begging will now be enforced squarely as the core duty of the Police.

He mentioned that with ongoing construction, street urchins have begun to hide under the disguise of street begging and hawking to dispossess commuters of their belongings.

According to him, there were several cases were mischievous elements posing as beggars on wheel chair have been found wielding weapons.

Odumosu, who mentioned that not only the beggars will be taken off the street,  said those using them for returns will be gotten arrested.

He, however, appealed to the sponsors who use beggars for returns to desist from the mischievous act “to make the society a better place for all.”

In his remarks, the State’s Commissioner for Information and Strategies, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, said the operation to sweep the beggars off the streets will this time around be backed with strong enforcement.

He stressed that using vulnerable persons as beggars for mischievous purposes has made the significance of such operation very important.

He added that, like every city of world, beggars littering the streets is against the vision of a smart city which is important to the present Government.