Edo To Arrest Parents Over Children’s Street Begging

Governor Godwin Obaseki has disclosed that to stop the menace of street begging in Edo State, his government will arrest and prosecute parents of out-of-school children.

According to Obaseki, education is free in the state so children should be in schools and not on the roadside begging.

Obaseki said this when he received the Muslim faithful at the Government House, Benin City to celebrate the Eid-El Fitr after the successful completion of the Ramadan.

The governor said, “We believe that basic education is the right for every child in Edo State; it’s their right and it’s free and compulsory. We will link education with street begging and street children.

“In the next few weeks or months, we will not allow street begging in the state anymore. We have farm settlements and we need hands and labour to cultivate food. People arrested from where they were begging will be evacuated to the farm settlements to work and if they don’t want to work, they will be sent back to where they come from.

“We just employed 3,062 teachers in the rural communities as they have just finished their training. We will make sure those hard-to-reach areas in the riverine communities will have teachers to teach children. We are training them now to work in those communities.”