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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