The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has cleared 48-year-old Ibrahim Hadiza, a notorious street beggar, caught with N500, 000 and $100 of any involvement in drugs peddling, arms dealing or kidnapping among other crimes.

The administration said the money in her possession accumulated over time.

FCTA revealed that preliminary security profiling of Hadiza, who was caught in the act at a junction along Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, in Wuse II, Abuja, clearly established that she was not into such nefarious acts.

The revelation was against the backdrop of mixed reactions following the controversial arrest of Hadiza by officials of the Social Development Secretariat (SDS).

Briefing reporters on Thursday, the Acting Director, of SDS, Malam Sani Amar, said as part of its profiling, the police personnel attached to its enforcement team clearly established that she is not into such nefarious acts.

Amar said: “Within our little knowledge and experience in discharging our duty, with the assistance of security personnel attached to us, we understand that Hadiza was not involved in any criminal activities.

“And if you look at the money found in possession, it accumulated over time. And the profiling we did on her, we gave the Police in our team time to play their role and they did what they can, and it was clearly established that she is not into such nefarious acts.

“She was so wise to have selected the areas of her own begging business, where she realizes huge money daily,” he said.

According to him, Hadiza, who hails from Zaria in Kaduna State, is one of the die-hard beggars that had been severally apprehended by the secretariat’s task force from the streets in highbrow areas.

He added that from their assessment within a decade that they have been apprehending the notorious beggar, she seems to be socially deformed not mentally, even as he described her as an “economic saboteur’’.

The FCTA official, however, appealed to the public to stop giving alms to beggars on the streets and junctions, adding the act is encouraging them, thereby causing environmental nuisances in the nation’s capital city.

The beggar, while responding to questions from journalists, who witnessed the return of the said money to her, said prior to her taking to street begging more than a decade ago, she was into clothes trading, which she abandoned over increasing bad debt.

Explaining how she accumulated the huge sum, she said it was from her savings of N2, 000 daily contribution facilitated with whatever she realises from begging on the streets.

Courtesy (excluding headline) The Nation

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