BEGGING’S
LUCRATIVE, SAYS WOMAN WHO WITHDREW HER SON FROM SCHOOL
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The suspect, identified as Chinagoro
Uwenke, 40, was arrested yesterday in Oshodi area of Lagos.
Uwenke was always seen in the
company of her son, whose leg was usually in bandage, discovered to be stained
with liquid, which several people believed was pus from untreated burns.
Luck, however, ran against them
after operatives of the task force demanded to know the magnitude of the
purported injury on the lad.
When the bandages were removed, it
was discovered to the astonishment of all that the boy had no injury at all.
Both mother and son were then
whisked away. ‘I make N5,000 daily’ Preliminary investigation showed that the
suspect had been engaged in the alms begging business for five years. She
revealed, during interrogation, that she made between N3,500 and N5000 daily.
She said: “I live at Oloko-Dana, Ijora-Olopa area, in Onyingbo.
I am from Abia State. Yes, my son is
hale and hearty, but I took to begging because it is lucrative.
I make more money at Oshodi than any
other area because of the number of people that pass by daily. “I withdrew my
son, Sunny Uwenke, from school back in Abia and brought him to Lagos five years
ago to use him to beg for alms. That is what most people do. This is because
people take pity on children. My five other children are with my husband in Ata
town, Abia State.
“What I do is to wrap his leg with
bandage, after which I would pour GV and other liquid substance which will make
it look as if it is an injury that refused to heal.
“I would then beg people to help me
with money to take him to the hospital. Some will even give without me begging
them. “But I am appealing to government not to take me to court. If I am left
off the hook, I promise to go back to the village and join my family.”
Chairman of the Task Force, Mr.
Olayinka Egbeyemi, a Superintendent of Police, who confirmed the arrest, said
there were several others like her on the streets of Lagos.
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