The FCT Administration Social Development Secretariat (SDS) had earlier on Friday, arrested 217 defaulters over street begging in Abuja.
This development comes even after the secretariat declares zero tolerance against destitute, child abuse, street begging and all forms of activities that contribute to environmental nuisance in the territory.
The Acting Director, Social Welfare Services of the SDS, Malam Sani Rabe who made the declaration when he led an enforcement team of security agencies and evacuation squad to arrest beggars and destitute within the city centre.
According to reports, the enforcement team arrested and evacuated beggars and destitute at Gwarinoa, Galadimawa Junction, Maitama, around the National Mosque and the city centre.
He disclosed that over 217 street beggars and destitute had been arrested by the enforcement team over a period of three days.
This development, according to him, comes after renewed efforts of the enforcement team to rid the city of environmental nuisances and other social vices.
Rabe further gave the assurance that the operation would be sustained until the city was free of street beggars and destitute.
To drive this home, he appealed to religious leaders to educate the public on the implication of begging.
He said, "We arrested many beggars with substantial amount of money with them yet some of them are sick, malnourished, and don’t even take care of themselves as they leave in a very dirty environment.
“We have on record at the FCT Bwari Area Council Rehabilitation Center, where we used to organised rehabilitation and vocational training for the beggars and destitute.
“In particular, there is a lady (beggar) we arrested with N675,000 cash, some of the naira notes that were kept for long are looking very dirty. I have the video record kept as evidence,” he said.
Rabe condemned begging in its totality, adding that there were some people who were into business and were providing for their family with credit of less than N50,000 without resorting to begging.
He promised that the FCTA would intensify efforts to subject the arrested beggars to attitudinal change to make them understand that having hopeless mind doesn’t help an individual and the society.