By; Samson Yaki, Kaduna.
The long-awaited bill for a law to prohibit street begging and hawking in kaduna state, 2016 has been passed into law.
The law which will be cited as the street begging and hawking prohibition law, 2016 seeks to discourage beggers and hawkers from being an eyesore to the society.
According to the law, any person found to be engaged in street begging in contravention of the law sixty days after its commencement shall be liable on conviction to a term not exceeding three months imprisonment or a fine not exceeding ten thousand naira or to both fine and imprisonment.
Similarly, the law states that anybody or person who engages in the act of hawking in contravention to he law has committed an offence liable on conviction to a term not exceeding six months imprisonment or to a fine not exceeding twenty thousand naira or both.
The law clearly sates that, “whoever procures, aids or abets the commission of any of the offences under the law, commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a term of one year imprisonment or a fine of fifty thousand or both”.
With this law on ground it is expected that in no distant time, streets of Kaduna will free of all forms of begging and hawking.
It would be recalled that earlier at the inception of this administration, beggars in the state threatened to disrupt this government should it attempt sending them off the street.
