Bala Kadiri is a
12-year-old orphan, who was brought down by his aunty from a village in
Kaduna State and made to hawk plantain chips on the streets of Abuja,
near Jabi garage.
Kadiri like other of his mates in the street hawking business, start work every day from 7 am till 6 pm. While on the street they face the constant harassment officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), FCT Social Works secretariat as well as armed policemen swoop on them. To avoid such arrests, the underage hawkers are always over their shoulders, and raise alarms to alert themselves to run in different directions any time the AEPB officials go after them.
During one of such escapes Tuesday afternoon, two hawkers escaped being knocked down by a motorist close to the Arab Contractors bus stop at Utako.
Those who were unlucky had their wares seized and were forced inside a bus. Fear appeared written on the faces of those kept in the buses as they wept uncontrollably and were driven to the AEPB's office at Area 3, Abuja. Such under aged hawkers are arraigned before mobile courts as was the case with one Abdullahi Muhammed a few years ago, who after his capture, was sentenced to seven strokes of the cane.
The minor was arraigned with 32 other adults for violating the AEPB's law on street hawking.
The board's Prosecutor, Barrister Eze O Eze, said those arraigned were caught hawking at various junctions and unauthorized places in the city by an AEPB task force.
He said the committed offences were punishable under Section 35 (1) of the AEPB Act number 10 of 1997.
After the accused persons pleaded guilty, Magistrate Aminu Abdullahi sentenced the minor to be flogged, while the adults got one month imprisonment each or pay fines of between N3,000 and N4,000, depending on the offence committed.
The same magistrate during that period ordered that another nine under aged hawkers be flogged seven strokes of the cane and their wares seized until they bring their parents to court.
Those flogged were I.K Ochine, Salisu Ibrahim, Madu Mpam, Tunde Famakinde, Ibrahim Muhammed, Sa'adu Adamu, Francis Isha, Suleiman Usman and Aminu Yakubu. To some convicted hawkers spoken to, it is difficult for them to disobey their guardians or masters whenever they are sent on the streets to hawk. "It is what we sell that we get money in the house to feed from," an underage hawker said. Weekly Trust also gathered that some of the child hawkers are homeless and sleep on the corridors of locked shops in shopping centers.
The flogging of the minors has caused uproar in the media , and in the social media which criticized the sentencing. ThisDay in one of its editorial condemned the flogging, stating thus: "To begin with, child street hawking is clearly a symptom of a deep-seated social malaise. Our violent world is claiming new victims who are mostly children. Everywhere, children are victims of rape, torture, infanticide, forced child labour, child prostitution, cyber café pornography, modern day slavery, street hawking and all sorts of preventable abuses. It is not unlikely that the Abuja minors were victims of child labour. It is not also unlikely that they were forced into street hawking by their poor parents or guardians who are trying to eke a living. It is even possible that the kids resorted to street hawking owing to lack of access to basic primary education".
Sola Adeniyi in the social media, said flogging will not stop under age hawking on streets as most of them who engage in it have no parents or guardians and survive on their own. He said such children are so poor and uneducated, adding that it is shocking for government to prosecute them instead of awarding scholarship to them to go to schools.
Barrister Nnaemeka Ejiofor, said according to Section 68 of the Penal Code, caning is part of punishment but minors less than eight years old shouldn't be prosecuted in the first place. He said if those arrested are up to 14 years, they can only face trial in a Juvenal Court.
Another lawyer, Barrister Yinka Lawal, a female activist, also condemned the manner at which child hawkers are arrested. "The process of arrest should be in a more civilized way by having social welfare officers and psychologists to talk to the arrested minors. Furthermore, care should be taken not to endanger their lives during such raids," she said.
She said such minors are already abused by their parents or guardians, who send them on the streets and it, will be double punishment for them if the FCT authorities come down heavily on them with their laws. According to her, some of them get knocked down by hit and run drivers due to the risk of their business.
The activist also said while hawking, such minors, especially the female among them, risk being harassed sexually or raped. She gave an example of a 12-year-old banana seller who was allegedly raped by one Usman Danjuma as she walked along Africa International School in Asokoro. She said the accused lured the seller into an uncompleted building, closed her mouth and threatened to kill her with a knife in order to forcefully have sex.
Lawal informed that in 1988, the Nigerian chapter of the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect organized three conferences with the Justice Ministry, Health and Social Welfare in conjunction with UNICEF to produce a new draft law on protecting children in Nigeria.
She said the draft later stimulated government to develop the current Child Rights Act 2003 and lamented that since the effort, there is no provision of national force that truly protects children against abuse. Also commenting on the issue of child hawkers, Spokesman of National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons, Orakwue Arinze, said though the agency is concerned about the plights of children who roam the streets hawking, it is not really its mandate to go after such hawkers. He said the agency's mandate bothers on how these children are trafficked and eventually used to do menial jobs.
"There are other relevant agencies saddled with the responsibility of going after the under aged hawkers. Ours is mainly to trace the trafficking aspect as well as the exploitative tendencies surrounding these kinds of children.
We are bothered about minors who are trafficked and taken advantage of. For example, if we find any brothel that operates with minors, we will surely clamp down on that place and the owner will be made to face the full wrath of the law."
He said they are doing their best as an agency but are still facing a few challenges while on the job, which they are working to surmount.
He said poverty is a huge factor that is causing most of these problems associated with trafficking. However, he said most illiterate parents are not even aware that exploiting even their own children has been criminalized.
"Some of such parents still think since they gave birth to these children they can do whatever they wish with them but it is against the law.
"Some of them get surprise when they are charge to court of law and eventually face the reality of their crime," he added.
He said in a bid to surmount some of these challenges, the agency just concluded a sensitization and awareness campaign which took a theatrical form as well as media platforms.
"We are still working with the Civil Society Organizations, Non Governmental Organizations, the Media as well as the Ministry of Women Affairs and other stakeholders to create more awareness so as to reduce to the bares minimum or stop it," he concluded.
Source: Daily Trust
Kadiri like other of his mates in the street hawking business, start work every day from 7 am till 6 pm. While on the street they face the constant harassment officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), FCT Social Works secretariat as well as armed policemen swoop on them. To avoid such arrests, the underage hawkers are always over their shoulders, and raise alarms to alert themselves to run in different directions any time the AEPB officials go after them.
During one of such escapes Tuesday afternoon, two hawkers escaped being knocked down by a motorist close to the Arab Contractors bus stop at Utako.
Those who were unlucky had their wares seized and were forced inside a bus. Fear appeared written on the faces of those kept in the buses as they wept uncontrollably and were driven to the AEPB's office at Area 3, Abuja. Such under aged hawkers are arraigned before mobile courts as was the case with one Abdullahi Muhammed a few years ago, who after his capture, was sentenced to seven strokes of the cane.
The minor was arraigned with 32 other adults for violating the AEPB's law on street hawking.
The board's Prosecutor, Barrister Eze O Eze, said those arraigned were caught hawking at various junctions and unauthorized places in the city by an AEPB task force.
He said the committed offences were punishable under Section 35 (1) of the AEPB Act number 10 of 1997.
After the accused persons pleaded guilty, Magistrate Aminu Abdullahi sentenced the minor to be flogged, while the adults got one month imprisonment each or pay fines of between N3,000 and N4,000, depending on the offence committed.
The same magistrate during that period ordered that another nine under aged hawkers be flogged seven strokes of the cane and their wares seized until they bring their parents to court.
Those flogged were I.K Ochine, Salisu Ibrahim, Madu Mpam, Tunde Famakinde, Ibrahim Muhammed, Sa'adu Adamu, Francis Isha, Suleiman Usman and Aminu Yakubu. To some convicted hawkers spoken to, it is difficult for them to disobey their guardians or masters whenever they are sent on the streets to hawk. "It is what we sell that we get money in the house to feed from," an underage hawker said. Weekly Trust also gathered that some of the child hawkers are homeless and sleep on the corridors of locked shops in shopping centers.
The flogging of the minors has caused uproar in the media , and in the social media which criticized the sentencing. ThisDay in one of its editorial condemned the flogging, stating thus: "To begin with, child street hawking is clearly a symptom of a deep-seated social malaise. Our violent world is claiming new victims who are mostly children. Everywhere, children are victims of rape, torture, infanticide, forced child labour, child prostitution, cyber café pornography, modern day slavery, street hawking and all sorts of preventable abuses. It is not unlikely that the Abuja minors were victims of child labour. It is not also unlikely that they were forced into street hawking by their poor parents or guardians who are trying to eke a living. It is even possible that the kids resorted to street hawking owing to lack of access to basic primary education".
Sola Adeniyi in the social media, said flogging will not stop under age hawking on streets as most of them who engage in it have no parents or guardians and survive on their own. He said such children are so poor and uneducated, adding that it is shocking for government to prosecute them instead of awarding scholarship to them to go to schools.
Barrister Nnaemeka Ejiofor, said according to Section 68 of the Penal Code, caning is part of punishment but minors less than eight years old shouldn't be prosecuted in the first place. He said if those arrested are up to 14 years, they can only face trial in a Juvenal Court.
Another lawyer, Barrister Yinka Lawal, a female activist, also condemned the manner at which child hawkers are arrested. "The process of arrest should be in a more civilized way by having social welfare officers and psychologists to talk to the arrested minors. Furthermore, care should be taken not to endanger their lives during such raids," she said.
She said such minors are already abused by their parents or guardians, who send them on the streets and it, will be double punishment for them if the FCT authorities come down heavily on them with their laws. According to her, some of them get knocked down by hit and run drivers due to the risk of their business.
The activist also said while hawking, such minors, especially the female among them, risk being harassed sexually or raped. She gave an example of a 12-year-old banana seller who was allegedly raped by one Usman Danjuma as she walked along Africa International School in Asokoro. She said the accused lured the seller into an uncompleted building, closed her mouth and threatened to kill her with a knife in order to forcefully have sex.
Lawal informed that in 1988, the Nigerian chapter of the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect organized three conferences with the Justice Ministry, Health and Social Welfare in conjunction with UNICEF to produce a new draft law on protecting children in Nigeria.
She said the draft later stimulated government to develop the current Child Rights Act 2003 and lamented that since the effort, there is no provision of national force that truly protects children against abuse. Also commenting on the issue of child hawkers, Spokesman of National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons, Orakwue Arinze, said though the agency is concerned about the plights of children who roam the streets hawking, it is not really its mandate to go after such hawkers. He said the agency's mandate bothers on how these children are trafficked and eventually used to do menial jobs.
"There are other relevant agencies saddled with the responsibility of going after the under aged hawkers. Ours is mainly to trace the trafficking aspect as well as the exploitative tendencies surrounding these kinds of children.
We are bothered about minors who are trafficked and taken advantage of. For example, if we find any brothel that operates with minors, we will surely clamp down on that place and the owner will be made to face the full wrath of the law."
He said they are doing their best as an agency but are still facing a few challenges while on the job, which they are working to surmount.
He said poverty is a huge factor that is causing most of these problems associated with trafficking. However, he said most illiterate parents are not even aware that exploiting even their own children has been criminalized.
"Some of such parents still think since they gave birth to these children they can do whatever they wish with them but it is against the law.
"Some of them get surprise when they are charge to court of law and eventually face the reality of their crime," he added.
He said in a bid to surmount some of these challenges, the agency just concluded a sensitization and awareness campaign which took a theatrical form as well as media platforms.
"We are still working with the Civil Society Organizations, Non Governmental Organizations, the Media as well as the Ministry of Women Affairs and other stakeholders to create more awareness so as to reduce to the bares minimum or stop it," he concluded.
Source: Daily Trust
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