The Government of Edo State is set to begin the evacuation of street beggars who are not ready to accept decent and meaningful enterprises.
Governor Godwin Obaseki said this while addressing Muslim worshipers paying a courtesy visit to Government House in Benin City on Monday.
He warned that children not in school but on the streets begging or trading would be arrested and prosecuted.
Obaseki stressed that in the coming weeks or months, he would no longer allow street begging in the state.
He said his administration believed basic education was the right of every child in the state.
“There are many agricultural settlements and more hands are needed to cultivate the land,” he said.
The governor said that anyone arrested for begging on the streets would be evacuated to the agricultural settlement to work.
He pointed out that if the beggars did not want to work, they would be sent back to their place of origin.
On inadequate teachers, he said his administration had hired 3,062 teachers in rural communities to improve the education system in the state.
Earlier, the Chief Imam of the Central Mosque of Benin, Abdulfatai Enabulele, praised the governor for the progress in the development of his administration.
Enabulele called on Obaseki to urgently clamp down on the threat of street begging and street trading.
