By Cynthia Johnson
The continuous influx of underage children moving about the streets, begging for alms for survival, has given most parents in Sokoto metropolis, a cause to worry.
It was observed that the children who were seen roaming along the streets within the metropolis, were mostly from the Internally Displaced Persons in the state.
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The rise in banditry and other forms of insecurity ravaging the Eastern senatorial district of the state, it would be recalled, has caused most of the residents of the area to leave their communities for fear of being attacked by gunmen.
As monitored by Quest Times, the children who were mostly between the ages of three and eight years were seen roaming the streets in search of food for survival.
These children included boys and girls and were mostly seen on the streets like Emir Yahya Bello Way, Sahara, Aliyu Jodi, Manna, among others.
One of the victims, Abdullahi, a three year old boy accompanied by his six year old elder brother, Ibrahim, when contacted, said their mother who was together with them at the Camp, asked them to go look for food.
He said their father who relocated to Gusau, left the children in the care of their mother who was also surviving on alms and gifts from the society.
Speaking with a resident of the state, Mallam Nuhu Ibrahim, an appeal was made by him for the government at all levels to urgently look for a measure out of the present predicament.
Ibrahim said the issue of banditry especially in the Sokoto-East senatorial district, should be dealt with, so as to restore sanity to the area.
He said “The rise in the IDPs camp in the state is as a result of insecurity in some parts of the state and we are appealing to our government, especially the federal government to help us deal with the insecurity.”
He finally noted that most of these children seen on the streets will go back to their base and school as well, once the security improves.
