By Josephine Oguntoyinbo,Ayodele Popoola & Emmanuel Oluwadola

The Influx of panhandlers, also known as destitute, into Akure, the Ondo State capital, and other major towns in the state is posing serious security threat to the lives and property of the residents.

Majority of the panhandlers are able bodied, with their wives and children clustering around or sitting on straight files, begging for alms from passersby at various locations within the state capital.

The destitutes are more visible in areas such as Post Office, Oja-Oba, pedestal bridge along Adesida Road, Old Garage, and S.O, among others, in Akure.

These beggars have no definite or permanent homes but sleep at any available space including shops on Oba Adesida Road, in the heart of Akure.

The development is causing serious concerns as their presence is raising concern in the affected locations and the entire state, as the destitutes have no traceable address.

Trucks, especially from the Northern part of the country, are usually seen dumping the destitutes in the night and very early in the morning to begin their begging business in the state.

Residents have continued to raise the alarm over the ugly situation and called on the appropriate authorities to address the situation before it gets out of hand.

The residents who acknowledged possible reasons for their influx, such as insecurity in the North, (insurgency and displacement), also emphasized the importance of thorough border checks by security officials to discourage illegal migration into the state.

A trader at the Post office area, Mrs Beatrice Williams, warned that government should not wholely ignore the presence of the children begging on the streets for survival, stressing that “it becomes so easy for criminal and dissent groups to recruit the children and youths as they grow up.

“The truth remains that their presence on our streets is like sitting on a keg of gun powder, if not now but in the future, those children raised on the streets will become nothing less but a vagabond”.

A market woman at Oja Oba, Mrs. Esther Daniel, expressed concerns over the increasing presence of destitute individuals on the streets and urged government to act fast.

“Sometimes, their overpopulation causes traffic problems. They push their young children to the street without adequate monitoring which leads to disorderliness along the roadside. This must be addressed,” she said.

 Aliyu Yusuf, a shop owner on Post Office Road, emphasized the need for the government to address the situation by providing accommodation and feeding for these individuals.

“Seeing them flooding the streets is not proper. Even at times, men of the State Environmental Sanitation sometimes chase them from sitting by roadsides and release them again.

“If the government can put them in a place and provide feeding for them. It can even be stipends or relief materials. I think that will be better because after chasing them, they keep coming back to the roadside”, he said.

Aliyu suggested that a dedicated place with proper monitoring would be more effective.

Also, Favour Abiodun, a POS agent at Old Garage, raised concerns about the destitute contributing to insecurity, particularly with the risks they face sitting by the roadside near moving vehicles.

“Sitting by the roadside is not appropriate for them. Their lives are at risk because of moving trailers,” she said.

Apparently dissatisfied with the development, Ondo State government has assured that it would evacuate the panhandlers before the end of the year

The Acting Permanent Secretary, State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mr Tope Lebile, while reacting to the influx of destitutes across major roads and the implications, said that the Ministry is aware and has a plan to address it.

“They are constituting security risks, not only in Akure but also other major towns, and it is the Ministry’s duty to ensure that we evacuate destitutes.

“The evacuation also have some implications, if we are going to do so by keeping them off the streets, it means that we must house them by putting them in a place, do the profiling to know which State they came from and then repatriate them back to their states.

“Before that step is taken, after keeping them, we will give them medications and as well take care of their needs for them to be stable, thereafter we will do profiling and conduct home tracing in order to reunite them with their families.

“We have rehabilitation centers for the mentally deranged to take care of them. That is our plan for them. All

 these steps have financial implications, therefore, we have informed the government and are waiting for approval as soon as possible,” he added.

He further assured that the Ministry is working to ensure the exercise is done regularly.

.”By the grace of God, before the end of the year, we will evacuate destitutes from the streets, I want to assure you that we are working on that”, he stressed.