Lagos Sets Up Special Team To Curb Street Begging

The Lagos State government has set up a Special Team to curb the menace of street begging. The Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mr. Olusegun Dawodu, announced this at a joint news briefing with his Information and Strategy counterpart, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso and the Commissioner of Police in the State, Mr Hakeem Odumosu, in Alausa, Ikeja. Members of the Special Team which will commence operations in the next few days will also be taking destitute off the roads and streets include Security Agents, Social Workers, Care Givers, Medical Personnel and Volunteers. Mr Dawodu pointed out that begging for alms has become a big business for some groups of people who bring in vulnerable children and adults from other parts of the country into Lagos, a situation which he said is constituting considerable nuisance to law abiding citizens and undermining security and government's development projects. To check the situation, the Commissioner, said the team and the Child Development Unit in his Ministry would be taking the affected persons off the streets to not only bring sanity to the society, but to also restore the dignity of such persons. "This we will 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. 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" the Commissioner said. Mr Dawodu announced that between January and July this year, the State had rescued Seven Hundred and twenty-eight destitutes from the streets In his remarks the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, who said it was the responsibility of the police to rid Lagos of miscreants who were in the habit of posing as beggars to rob residents, appealed to sponsors of the evil act to desist. Mr. Odumosu who attributed the spate of traffic robbery to the ongoing construction works and attendant traffic gridlocks in some areas, warned that anyone caught would be prosecuted. Earlier, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, said the enforcement by the new special team would be total, to ensure that children who were supposed to be in school to better their future were not used as evil tools.