Anambra Set To Prosecute Beggars, Hawkers

The Anambra State Govern

ment is to establish family courts, where beggars and hawkers will be prosecuted as part of efforts to clean up cities in the state.

The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Henrieta Agbata, disclosed the plan in an interview in Awka last Thursday.

“Many of the beggars and street hawkers have been caught in the past and warned to desist from such acts, but after a while, they return to the streets, constituting a nuisance,” Agbata said

She said that setting up such courts had become imperative so that those caught in the act would be tried and punished accordingly

“Some people are in the habit of bringing children from the villages to live with them and later send such children to hawk for them, instead of enrolling them in schools. “Such people should understand that the Child Rights Act is in place in Anambra and we have started implementing it,” the commissioner said.

Agbata warned that the state government in collaboration with some non-government organisations would beam the search light on the activities of beggars and hawkers with a view to arresting them.