Residents have called on Abia State government to immediately evacuate beggars from the streets of Aba where they constitute nuisance to pedestrians and motorists.
Beggars have now taken over almost all available space on major roads in the commercial nerve centre of the state where they disrupt the flow of traffic while soliciting alms.
The situation has attracted the wrath of residents who have called on government to rehabilitate the beggars in order to take them away from the streets.
They have outnumbered the physically- challenged persons who now stay under shades at same junction, soliciting alms. One of the greatest hazards is the way the young beggars swam around motorists like bees on beehive. According to motorists, especially commercial drivers, the fear of the beggars is the beginning of driving.
A tricycle operator, Mr. Okey Igwe, said that on several occasions, he had nearly rammed into the beggar who usually troop to the streets without notice. “The situation now is that they no longer beg but harass and intimidate both passengers and motorists,” Igwe said.
But at the Eziukwu Junction on the same road, the beggars are always on the lookout for flashy cars. They will rush to the road in their number and continue to sing praises of the owner until he parts with some currency notes. First time visitors to the city are apprehensive of the menace of the “youth beggars” who they mistake for either car-snatchers or hoodlums.
According to a petrol attendant, a visitor from a nearby city nearly knocked down their dispensing machine as he sped off on sensing the beggars. A social worker attached to the urban local government in Aba, who pleaded anonymity, said the beggars were not from Abia State. She said the beggars came from neighbouring cities on a weekly basis.
According to her, they come in trucks from those neighbouring states at the beginning of the week and go back on Friday.
