By Gabriel Udeh, Kaduna
The population of “Almajiri” street begging is rapidly increasing steadily in major streets in Kaduna.
Ragtag children flocking together begging for arms, foods and other necessities of life have taken over the Kaduna metropolis.
.This according to Daybreak investigations is apparently owing to the continuous closure of schools due to incessant kidnapping and abduction of school children by bandits in kaduna state.
Almost every major street inside kaduna metropolis are besieged as Almajiri children below 12 are seeing begging for arms and food all over state capital.
Recalled that Almajiri system of education was banned by Kaduna state government and begging of sort prohibited since the inception of the present administration.
Our correspondent who monitored the incident in Kaduna main town reported that recently, some Almajiri children narrowlly escaped motor accident along Muhammadu Buhari. He reports that the situation has made driving on the streets of Kaduna town precarious.
Recently a major fight broke out among Almajiri children over sharing of food.The incident which occurred midday in front of New Nigeria Development Company (NNDC) Mall, attracted lots of sympathizers by passersby who called on the state government to address the situation in line with its policy banning almajiri in the state.
A civil servant, Aliyu Umar who spoke on the development condemned the Kaduna State Government for keeping silent and not taking measures to keep the children engaged since schools were closed as a result of security failures “its government failure if they are shut out of schools what do you expect? Anarchy and that’s what we are experiencing now and on its own it is a time bomb”
The state government recently announced the shutting down of all schools including some higher institutions due to incessant kidnapping and abduction of children in both primary and post primary schools across the state by bandits.
Students who were yet to complete their examinations were relocated from schools in the outskirts into the main city to complete their exams, while wearing of school uniforms was also prohibited to avoid exposing pupils and students to kidnapping or bandits.
Although the initial intention of the closure was to mark out time for some military exercise to secure prone areas in the state, it later turned an indefinite closure as banditry worsened and escalated.
Also due to the closure of schools, the menace of children who took to street begging has skyrocketed.
