OYO State Government has begun the evacuation of beggars and destitute urchins from the streets of Ibadan.
The evacuees were said to have been taken to the Akinyele Resettlement Centre which is their new abode.
The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, Alhaja Faosat Sanni, in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Taiwo Adisa, expressed surprise that some of the evacuees were husbands and wives.
But she said the people would be well taken care of by the government for some time.
She said, “We are not just going to dump these people somewhere and make them suffer. As you all can see, the facility provided here is far better than where they are. So, that is what the government is doing.
“There are husbands and wives there. I never thought of people like that being beggars. We have provided a space for women and children that are street urchins.
“But I just heard for the first time that there are couples among them. We have kitchens, cooks; we have bought foodstuffs, mattresses, mats. We have all the household things you can think of, which are in an average Nigerian home.
“The toilets too are there; six for the women, six for men. And at the back of the toilets, we have a washing place. So, those are some of the facilities provided.”
PUNCH
