El-Rufai, beggars’ face-off deepens in Kaduna

THE face-off between beggars in Kaduna State and the governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, deepened yesterday as the beggars vowed to bring down the All Progressives Congress (APC) government in the state.

Besides, the beggars alleged that they had used proceeds from begging to help join the movement that produced Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna State and also pledged to bring down his government if he insists on stopping their livelihood without providing them any alternative.

The beggars, who addressed journalists in Kaduna through the leadership of Kaduna State Beggars Association, said if they knew that El-Rufai would stop them from begging and would show no care about their welfare, they would never have voted him into office.

Malam Yahaya Makaho, a visually-challenged person, who spoke on behalf the group, said: “I want to swear on my honour that I personally used my proceeds from begging to canvass for the support of El-Rufai. I used my money to mobilise for his support both on the streets and where I usually teach my students. And I am not alone in my group that made that sacrifice.

“We decided to support El-Rufai because we were tired of the then governor (Mukhtar Ramalan Yero), who did not show any regard to our survival. We worked hard, spent money and prayed and God heard our prayers and brought down Yero.

“Now, it would appear that we made a mistake. The new governor wants to bring us down. He does not want us to live. He has chased us out of the streets and has made no alternative arrangement for our survival. Look, some of us here have between three and four wives and many children. How can you lock such a man, who must resort to begging because he has found himself incapable of doing any other thing?

“We are asking the governor to rescind this decision now or find ways to meet our basic needs. If he refuses to heed to this demand, we shall make sure we bring down his government. We are not going to pray that he dies, even if he wishes us so. We are not going to say that he should be impeached because we voted him to power. What we will do is to hand him over to the Almighty God, and we know he will remove him the same way he removed the former person. We are servants of God, and he always hear our cry.”

The governor, while placing a ban on begging in the state recently, said that beggars and hawkers were being used by terrorists to innocently courier bombs, saying he had banned their activities in the state not out of malice, but for public good.