The Kano State Hisbah Board said it has repatriated more than 700 beggars to their various states of origin since the commencement of the exercise last month.
This is sequel to the signing of the Street Begging Prohibition Bill into law by Governor Rabi’u Kwankwaso in January as part of efforts to discourage begging in the state.
The Director-General of the board, Alhaji Abba Sufi, who made this known in an interview with journalists in Kano on Wednesday, said most of the affected beggars were from Benue, Jigawa, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger.
He further explained that the board repatriated 22 people, who had mental disorders to Niger Republic, while 22 others were taken to Dorayi Psychiatric Hospital in Gwale Local Government Area of the state.
“Those taken to Dorayi Psychiatric Hospital are Kano State indigenes. We decided to take them there in order to enable them get proper treatment and care”, he said.
According to Sufi, the exercise is continuous and will not stop until all beggars are repatriated to their states of origin and local government areas, if they are from Kano State.
On the recently introduced empowerment programme for destitute, the Hisbah board boss said the state government had finalized plans to kick start the second phase of the programme.
“A total of 300 registered beggars will benefit from the second programme which will soon be inaugurated by Gov. Rabi’u Kwankwaso”, he said.
The director-general noted that a total of 234 destitute benefitted from the first phase of the programme last month.
