Governor Orders Immediate Mass Arrest of Street Beggars in Capital City, Gives Reasons
- Kwara State Government intensified its crackdown on street begging in Ilorin, arresting more than 40 individuals during a fresh evening raid
- Officials revealed that some street beggars act as informants to bandits and drug peddlers, raising serious security concerns
- The government vowed to sustain the operation until street begging is completely eradicated, citing new tactics by the beggars to evade arrest
The Kwara State Government has explained why it has intensified its crackdown on street beggars in Ilorin, the state capital, revealing that many of those parading as beggars are actually serving as informants to bandits and other criminal groups.
This comes as an update to a story earlier reported by Legit.ng a few months ago when dozens of beggars were first evacuated from the streets of Ilorin.
Source: Twitter
On Saturday evening, Legit.ng correspondent monitored another round of the exercise jointly carried out by officials of the state ministry of social welfare in collaboration with the Nigerian Correctional Service.
The operation was conducted in popular locations where beggars usually camp, including Geri Alimi, Gambari, Tanke, and Post Office.
Arrests and shocking discoveries
Legit.ng gathered that over 40 individuals were picked up during the operation. Among them was a man identified as Musa Mahmuda, who claimed to be from Kano State.
Officials discovered a U.S. Dollar note and about N18,000 in his possession. Another suspect was found with a sharp knife, raising further concerns about the true activities of some of the beggars.
It was also discovered that seven of those arrested were repeat offenders, having previously been evacuated but returning to the streets shortly after.
“Some of them are informants to bandits” — Kwara official
Speaking to Legit.ng, one of the top officials from the state ministry of social welfare who led the evacuation said the exercise was not just about cleaning the streets but protecting lives.
Source: Getty Images
The official stated:
“This exercise is basically about the security of the state. This is because we have a lot of people (the street beggars) out there, some of them are informants to bandits, some of them are people that are actually selling (hard) drugs. This is about security in a time that the country is battling with security challenges. We want to make sure that our streets are safe. The Kwara State Government frowns at this and there is a law that outlaws street begging in the state.
“The last time we were out here, we arrested about 94 of them. Necessary actions were taken and a few of them were repatriated back to their various states, those that are not from Kwara State,” he said.
Kwara Commissioner: “They are changing strategies”
Kwara State Commissioner for Social Welfare, Dr Mariam Imam, also addressed journalists on why the government is not backing down despite criticisms.
She explained:
“It is another exercise for the repatriation of street beggars. The reason why we are continuing with the exercise is that they (the beggars) have also changed strategies. Maybe where they stayed, and we also know that they have informants within themselves that are telling them that we are coming to evacuate them today. We actually picked Saturday for this program because they will believe that government workers will not work on Saturday. And we picked the evening times because we also know that it is their time of coming out.”
Dr Imam added that the government is already seeing progress.
“So far so good, we have recorded a lot of success in this exercise. The number that we picked the last time compared to what we have picked on Saturday is reduced. This is showing that number one, there is a reduction of the street beggars in Ilorin metropolis. They should also know that we are not resting, that we really want to say No to street begging in Kwara.”
Nigerian Correctional Service: “We don’t want bandits in Kwara”
A senior official of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Kwara Command, Okunola Adebayo, told Legit.ng that the security services are fully backing the government’s campaign.
He said:
“What we are doing here is to restore peace, sanity and to make the state very clean for everybody. We don’t want bandits in Kwara State.”
Legit.ng recalls that during the previous raid, about 94 beggars were arrested in Ilorin. Some of them were sent back to their home states while others were processed in line with the state’s anti-begging laws.
The government insists the exercise will continue until street begging is eradicated in the metropolis, stressing that the issue has gone beyond nuisance to a matter of security, especially with Nigeria’s growing insecurity challenges.
Govt accuses PoS operators of aiding terrorists
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the Kwara State Government had expressed serious concern over the rising trend of Point-of-Sale (PoS) operators allegedly aiding terrorists and kidnappers in laundering ransom money.
The government stressed that such activities worsen insecurity across communities in the state.
Source: Legit.ng
