By Okechukwu Onuegbu
The Anambra State Ministry of Women and Social Welfare, in collaboration with the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA), conducted a raid at aroma junction and other strategic locations, arresting and rescuing 16 child-beggars.
The children who had been handed over to the Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra (Ocha) Brigade, it was learnt, would be reunited to their parents after establishing their family members through contact tracing.
The Anambra State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Mrs. Ify Obinabo, who led the team alongside her ACTDA counterpart, Hon. Osita Ọnuko, expressed concern over the use of school-age children for alms begging, describing it as exploitation and denial of their right to education.
Obinabo, who recalled that Governor Chukwuma Soludo's administration was providing free basic education in the state, explained that Anambra State government would no longer tolerate use of children for begging anywhere and urged perpetrators to keep off or face the wrath of law.
Contributing, the Managing Director of ACTDA, Mr. Ossy Onuko, while recalling that the beggars and other miscreants had repeatedly been warned to keep away from Anambra State, insisted that the authorities were determined to identify and prosecute the parents, guardians, and syndicates behind the exploitation of these children.
According to him, the raid was part of an ongoing effort to rid the area of illegality, because it is a key governmental zone, and they would equally extend the gesture to other parts of the Awka Capital Territory.