…. Moves to return them to school
By Jude Atupulazi and Ikeugonna Eleke
In a bold move to get Awka Capital City looking decent, the Anambra State Government has cleared street urchins and kid beggars off the streets, just as it says it will send them back to school at government’s expense.
An agency of the government, Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA), in a press release made available to journalists, said henceforth, it would not tolerate street kids in the state capital after their evacuation
It also warned members of the public who bring gift items like food to designated areas where the kids stay to beg for alms to desist from doing so.
The statement read: ‘Henceforth, ACTDA strongly warns all individuals and groups to desist from distributing any form of alms or gifts to the destitute in public spaces.
‘Rather, we urge all charitable acts to be channelled through accredited organizations such as orphanages, care homes and registered Non-Governmental Organizations where support can be professionally administered to those in need or their private homes and spaces that do not constitute nuisance.
‘Be advised that anyone caught engaging in the open distribution of items to destitute in public spaces within the Awka Capital Territory will be deemed to be enabling civil disorder and will be prosecuted in accordance with the law. The children will be sent back to school by the agency, and we will not want to see more children on the streets.’
The agency warned those who used the children as street peddlers of goods to desist from such acts as government would apply the full weight of the law on them.
Meanwhile, the Coordinator of Child Care Initiative (CCI), an NGO, Mr Chuka Nnorum, in a separate release, commended the Anambra State Government for its drive towards social reorientation and ridding the streets of urchins.
He described the move as a step in the right direction to avert the growth of touts and hoodlums in the Capital City.
‘This is a welcome development and we commend the Governor for that and we advise their parents and relatives to send them back to school or engage them in the One Youth, Two Skills programme of the State Government or take advantage of the Free Education Policy of Government to send them back to school,’ he said.
Fides recalls that despite several efforts by the Anambra State Government, through the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Social Welfare, in the past to rid the Awka Capital of the menace of street urchins and beggars, they always returned in their numbers after some time, especially on weekends when there is no government work.
