2 women nabbed for using ‘borrowed’ babies to beg

The monitoring team of the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development has rescued three infants and apprehended two women for using babies less than a month old for alms begging at the Oyingbo area.

According to a statement signed by the Ministry’s spokesperson, Mrs Kemi IkotunAdepitan, the arrested women, Hadiza Nosiru and Salamotu Salisu had told the monitoring team that they were both natives of Jigawa State. However, the ministry said its investigation revealed that the women were not the biological mothers of the kids they were using for begging.

The statement read in part, “Preliminary investigation conducted by the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development has revealed that the babies were given out to them by their parents who get paid every day on each baby. One of the biological mothers of the infants paraded at Alausa Ikeja on Thursday alongside the three infants identified herself as Tawa Aregbesola from Ibadan and confessed that she had an agreement with one of the impersonating mothers to take her baby for alms begging between 5pm and 7pm daily on the condition that between N1000 and N1500 would be given to her on return.

The Commissioner expressed disappointment at the practice of using new-born babies for begging and vowed that the arrested women would be prosecuted.