Two women who have been posing
their children with fake wounds to beg for alms on the street of Lagos have
been arrested and Jailed. 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 under aged 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.
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