The Family Court 1 in Yaba Magistracy has jailed two women for
trafficking and using children to beg for alms in Victoria Island area
of Lagos, western Nigeria.
The women, Amarachi Eke from Imo State and Chioma Eze from Awka in
Anambra State, sourtheast Nigeria, were arraigned at the court on
Wednesday on a two-count charge of using underaged children to beg for
alms. And they pleaded guilty to the charges.
Magistrate Y.O.
Aje-Afunwa sentenced them to two months imprisonment each; one month for
each count charge and they are also to pay a fine of N5,000. The jail
terms will run concurrently.
In
sentencing them, Aje-Afunwa said there was the need for the convicts to
learn some useful lessons in prison and that since they were still
young, they should engage in something more productive rather than using
kids to beg on the street.
According to her, they have to learn
the hard way in prison not to engage in something bad in the society,
believing that the prison would transform their lives for the better.
The
two women were arrested at Ajose Adeogun Street, Victoria Island
recently while begging with two kids, aged six and nine years. The
stomach and legs of the kids were plastered with ointment and wool to
give the impression that they were suffering from serious burns to
attract public sympathy.
An Environmentalist, Betty Albert, was
driving by and saw the gory sight of the nine-year old boy lying on the
ground and decided to assist the victim.
She parked her car and came out and told Chioma that she should be allowed to take the boy to the hospital.
On
hearing this, Chioma asked the boy to run away which he did, but
unfortunately, he was caught by a policeman who was on duty nearby.
The Environmentalist asked the policeman to chase after the boy and he was caught and brought back to the scene.
“I
asked the boy whether something was wrong with him and he said he was
okay. I asked him whether I could remove the plasters and wool on his
stomach and he said yes. So I removed them and found out that the boy
was alright.
“The boy told me that his younger brother was at Eko
Hotel with another woman also begging for alms and that they should
help him to get the boy. The boy was brought with the other woman,”
Betty explained.
The boy’s leg was also plastered with ointment and wool to deceive people that he had been badly burnt and needed help.
Investigation
revealed that Chioma Eze, from Anambra State, had gone to Awka and told
the children’s parents that she wanted to assist them send the children
to school in Lagos and she was allowed to take them. But unknown to the
parents, their children were brought to beg for alms in Lagos.
Betty had been following the case or almost two weeks to ensure justice was done.
The
women were arrested by police from Bar Beach Police Station, while the
case was later transferred to Adeniji Adele Police Station.
The
case was again transferred to the State Criminal Investigation
Department, SCID, Panti, Yaba where it was charged to court on
Wednesday.
According to Betty, the in-law of one of the women had
been threatening her life because of the way she had pursued the case,
alleging that the in-law to Chioma said he had marked her face and would
ensure that she was eliminated.
The Lagos State Office of Youth
and Social Department has been following the case and has expressed
disgust at the way the children were ill-treated by the women.
Special
Adviser to the Governor on Youth and Social Development, Dr. Dolapo
Badru, said it is lamentable that Anambra State had continued to be a
place where people were brought to Lagos to beg for alms.
“How can
these women be so callous to have brought these children from Anambra
State to beg for alms in Lagos? They even make the children feign injury
and they don’t have homes in Lagos and now they will say we are
deporting their people. What we are saying is that these are things the
public won’t know,” he stated.
He said Lagos “would not tolerate a
situation where Anambra State would continue to infest the state with
beggars and later cry wolf that we are deporting people that have no
homes to stay in the state.”
Badru vowed that the government would
go after such people using kids to solicit for alms, while decrying the
new strategy now being in used to attract public sympathy, saying it is
inhuman to treat kids that way.
He said the punishment meted out
to the women would serve as deterrent to others who might want to
engage in such despicable act.
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/58657.html
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/58657.html
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