The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA),has returned 217 destitutes and street beggers to Kano,Kaduna and other neighbouring states.
Alhaji Sani Amar-Rabe, Director, Department, Social Welfare Services, Social Development Secretariat (SDS) of the FCTA, disclosed this to reporters after dispatching department officials to transport the beggars and the homeless to their various states.
He explained that the repatriation was in compliance with the order by the FCT Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu and the Permanent Secretary, FCTA, Mr Olusade Adesola, who instructed the department of social welfare services to free the city of human and environmental nuisances.
He said:”We are here in respect of repatriation of the apprehended destitutes, street baggers, street boys and vagabonds who were profiled, their health challenges were equally attended to and they show no interest in learning vocational skills.They only show interest to be out to be attended to what they consider to be a liberty sort of, to continue doing their destitution.
“But those who have good mindset, embrace skills acquisition for empowerment. So, that is the purpose of our coming to this centre today. Today we don’t have many; they are just 217 beggers and street boys that are to be repatriated, mostly to Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, Jigawa, Kano, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi states.And this time around we have some from Abia, Imo and Delta states.”
Amar-Rabe revealed that the FCT Minister of State, Aliyu, had been in contact with some of the state governments through their Liaison Offices, to ensure that the affected states were more responsive in addressing and managing the repatriated destitutes and beggars.
” What we noticed from some of the destitutes and beggars as well is that they consider the FCT safer and economically viable, especially those of the North West and the North East.So people from these zones move to Abuja for survival and some of them, we discovered that begging and destitution has become an attitude to them.
” The street boys that constitute menace and defaced the Federal Capital City, some of whom at a particular point in time, manifest into another threat to the security of the residents especially those that do sleep under bridges claiming to be destitutes but most of them are criminals.”
