Police smash syndicate using sick persons for begging

Needless to say, she sang songs of victory that at last, mercy had come her way. Her neigbours and relations in Gboko area of Benue State rejoiced greatly too when they heard the good news.Before long, Choosu was asked by her visiting angel to prepare for a trip to Abuja where she could get the […]

Needless to say, she sang songs of victory that at last, mercy had come her way. Her neigbours and relations in Gboko area of Benue State rejoiced greatly too when they heard the good news.
Before long, Choosu was asked by her visiting angel to prepare for a trip to Abuja where she could get the needed medical attention and then return back home hale and hearty in another few weeks.
Sadly, that was never to be as it turned out that the ‘angel’ was a disguised member of a syndicate which specialises in luring people with various sicknesses, just like Choosu’s case, and recruiting them as beggars.
Soon, it became evident to the woman that she was not the only one who had been ignorantly moved out of home by the syndicate as she discovered a girl about 10 years old, Blessing Moses, also a Tiv among the captives.
Narrating her ordeal in the hands of the captors after being rescued from Ladipo market in Lagos by police through the effort of a non-governmental organisation that specializes in tackling human trafficking and child abuse, Choosu told Daily Trust at the Benue State Police headquarters in Makurdi that she was taken along with other victims to different places to beg for money.
“They took me to different markets to beg for money saying that they would later take me for treatment in a hospital. They first took me to Abuja and later to Onitsha in Anambra State where we stayed for two weeks then they moved me to Lagos where we continued the begging. It was there that we were apprehended by the police,” she said.
Similarly, the little girl, Moses who hails from Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, said that they were taken to many places including Enugu for begging before the police came to their aid.
According to Moses, she had a protruding stomach ailment which the syndicate often pump with water to further blow it up in a bid to attract sympathy of the unsuspecting members of the public in order to generate huge alms.
Confirming the story, the state Commissioner of Police, Hyacinth Dagala said Moses and Choosu were recovered in company of one of the suspects, Onya Chia who was using them in Lagos to get money through begging.
The police boss said the syndicate was in the habit of charming and taking their prey from their homes with the promise that they were taking them for treatment in big cities like Abuja, Lagos, Onitsha and Port-Harcourt but ends up with them in the markets to display their ailments for the purpose of using them to beg for alms from members of the public.
Dagala explained that Choosu with a pathetic breast condition was taken by the syndicate from Gboko in Benue six weeks ago to various places including Onitsha where they made her to display her breast while they keep begging people in the name of God to give her alms. He said no treatment was administered on the victims as the syndicate converted the money generated to their personal use.
The suspect, Chia, who was paraded by the police in Makurdi, said he was not alone in the business revealing that his boss and elder brother, John Chia, who lives in Onitsha, employed him.
The suspect who claimed that he hails from Ushongo Local Government Area of Benue State disclosed that they made between N10,000 and N20,000 daily which they remit into the account of their boss in Onitsha.
Meanwhile, the police have expressed strong commitment toward finding other members of the syndicate and bringing them to face the wrath of the law while the rescued victims would be handed back to their families for proper care.