Two women have been arrested and jailed for trafficking children
and making them beg on the streets of Lagos with fake wounds.
PM News reports
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.
The women, Amarachi Eke from Imo State and Chioma Eze
from Awka in Anambra State, 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 for 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.
