The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Lariba Zuweira Abudu, has reiterated the calls for road users to desist from giving money to child beggars.

This, she believes will go a long way to deter these children from returning to the streets, sometimes, under dangerous and harsh conditions.

The minister made this call during a Minister’s Press Briefing at the Ministry of Information office on Sunday, June 4, 2023, to bring the public up to speed on the progress and implementations of initiatives, programmes and policies under the gender ministry.

The minister added that if several adults shun these child beggars on the streets, they will be reluctant to return due to the non-indulgence of road users.

“If you don’t give them today and I don’t give them tomorrow, next week they will be forced to leave the streets and move away,” the minister said.

In recounting the measures put in place to reduce the number of child beggars on the streets, the minister added that the government repatriated about 400 foreign child beggars but they still find a way to return in their numbers. Hence, the only way will be to stop giving them money.

“We have done a lot to take them from the streets but somehow they find themselves back, we even repatriated 400 of them and engaged the embassies here but they find ways to come back so we have to stop giving money to minors on the streets because as adults I don’t see why we should be giving monies to six-year-olds on the streets,” Lariba said.

ABJ/WA