Plight of Abuja beggars, hawkers

It is no longer news that the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has prohibited street begging and street hawking in the FCT. Those who engage in these acts have been warned to vacate the streets or be arrested as the extant laws have outlawed their activities within the city centre and its environs.

Despite the prohibition and warnings, these set of people defy the authorities to continue with their illegal activities, saying they have no choice but to do so in order to survive. Most times, some of these hawkers and beggars are allegedly molested and maltreated by AEPB enforcement teams. A few of them narrated their plights in the hands of the FCT officials.

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An elderly woman who gave her name as Kaduna and sells banana along Shehu Yaradua Expressway told Daily Trust Saturday that she’s unperturbed by the persecution meted against hawkers in the city, saying it’s natural that seeking for one’s daily bread must be met with concomitant threats and intimidations, especially in today’s Nigeria.

“They come out to do the job they are paid for, just as we also come out to eke a living; that’s normal in life,” she added.

Ibrahim Sagir, 35, a native of Kano State who was crippled by Polio virus and has been living in Abuja for more than 20 years, said he since stopped begging and opted for petty trading in Karmajiji area of Abuja.

Asked why he abandoned begging, Sagir lamented that the incessant harassments and humiliation meted against them by taskforce and some members of the public forced him to have a second thought on begging in Abuja.

He said, “Almost every beggar in Abuja is facing some form of abuse from the city’s taskforce agents because the authorities have outlawed such practices and everyone is in the know.

“The kind of abuse I was subjected to is indeed distasteful. We would always play hide and seek with the taskforce as they keep chasing us up and down. Sometimes, you could be unlucky to be caught and repatriated to your home state. That was the practice before they opened a destitute home in Bwari where they now jam-pack destitutes.

However, Sagir said the taskforce officials do not beat, insult or reprimand them but they are confined at the indigent home until when the officials deport them to their respective states of origin.

On his part, a welder who was formerly a street beggar, Bako Madaki, 32, said he has lost count on the number of times he fell prey to the FCT taskforce while begging on the streets.

He said, “When I see them from afar, I would manoeuvre and sneak away, and then come back after they leave.  But I was arrested severally and dumped either at their office or the destitute home. They would later release us and ask us to stop begging or else we leave the FCT. But because I lacked something to do, I would go back to the streets. Thank God, today I am an apprentice welder. I now have a means of survival,” he added.  

Speaking to our reporter, a secondary school leaver, Ayeni Tunde, who hawks sweets and lozenges along Jabi Road, said though it is not easy to hawk on the road, there was the need to make ends meet.

He said running after vehicles is not easy, but the motorists understand them, so they slow down whenever any of the passengers want to buy something.

He alleged that whenever they are arrested by officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), they are fined between N5000 and N10,000, adding that even after paying the fines, the task force officials go away with our goods.

Another hawker, Haruna Hassan, who has been hawking for the past two years, said he was into it despite the crackdown by the task force because he could not get any other job to do. 

“I started this business because of lack of job. If you look for a sales girl/boy job, when they employ you, they will harass you on the job; that is why I chose to do this.”

On how lucrative the business is, he said he makes up to N10,000 profit in a month, depending on sales.

He called on the government to come to their aid by creating job opportunities so that they can get off the streets.

Gbenga Babatunde, a secondary school student who hawks plantain chips whenever school is on break, said they usually alert one another whenever they see the AEPB officials.

Sunday Durotimi said though it is not advisable to hawk on the road, they have to do something to earn a living. 

Durotimi said on a good day, he makes a profit of N2, 000, adding, however, that there are days they make no sales at all. 

“Task force will seize our goods when they arrest us, and when we pay the fine of N5, 000, they will not return our goods. Government should try and mediate on our behalf concerning the issue,” he said.

“I had nine credits in my SSCE and NECO, so I am trying to get money so that I can go back to school or start another business. That is why I am here,” he said.