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.
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