Nollywood actress ready to partner Abia State govt to end street begging, as she marks her birthday with street beggars

A Nollywood actress, Princess Eziuche Obediah has expressed her readiness to partner with the Abia State government in its efforts to sanitize the streets of Umuahia, the state capital, and Aba, the commercial nerve of the state of street beggars.

Obediah who is also a crown princess of Ngwa Land (Abuba Ugo; Feathers of an Eagle, of Ngwa Land) stated this in Aba after visiting and interacting with street beggars at major junctions in Aba including Bata Junction, Asa Road by Christ the King Catholic (CKC).

According to her, the sensitization exercise was part of activities to mark her birthday celebration and to also support the state government in its drive to rid the streets of Aba and Umuahia of beggars.

She said that she decided to leave her comfort zone to come to the street to mark her birthday with the less privilege ones in order to give them the sense of belonging, reorient and educate them on the dangers associated with street begging.

The Nollywood actress, who decried the neglect of members of the less privileged and indigent members of the society by members of the public, lamented that if nothing was urgently done to engage the minds of street beggars into meaningful things, unscrupulous members of the society could take advantage of their helpless situation to use them to perpetrate evil on other members of the society.

She used the opportunity to call on well-meaning Abians and individuals in the state to come to the assistance of the less privileged and at the same time, support the state government efforts in ensuring that street begging menace is eradicated or reduced to its barest minimum.

“I decided to celebrate my birthday today with the less privileges on the road instead of going to orphanages and home for the old people which I have been doing in other years.

“I decided to come on the road today because I believe that the children on the streets also need help.

“The ones in the orphanage homes have shelter. They have food and other basic amenities. But these ones on the road are vulnerable. Though some of them use it as a business, but how long shall they continue in this?

“I believe that with my foundation, we can do something to take them out from the road. We can engage them in various skills acquisition like we have always been doing.

“I have spoken to a couple of them and I believe that they will accept to be helped because you cannot help someone if that person doesn’t accept to be helped.

“After speaking to some of them, they accepted that if I and my foundation gives them any help, that they will accept it. I am also urging the government to also help to relieve this people from the road because it is never the best way of life, no matter how best that they look at it.

“Some of these children were born here and they believe that they can only live, grow and die. I urge the government to help them out of the street because they are exposed to a lot of dangers and hazards being on the road.

“We have been able to discover that some people come here and give them peanut just to sleep with both the male and females.

“The females at the end of the day become pregnant for someone that they don’t know. They give birth and their child or children eventually get to the streets.

“If this continues without any effort to nip it on the board, they may end up becoming armed robbers, kidnappers, bandits, etc. The more we have more children on the streets, evil continues to grow.

“As a princess, I felt that they are my subjects who deserved to be shown love and I am happy that I have been able to put a smile on their faces. I urge other members of the public and other foundations to help to get these children out of the streets.

“I don’t think that they have been treated fairly by the society. There are people who use these street children and beggars for business. They enrich themselves from the proceeds these people here get from members of the public. They even go as long as beating them.

“This is a collective responsibility. We can gather them at a place and empower them. What they need is empowerment. I am sure that by the time we empower them and they put what they have learnt into practice, it will help them to become what they want to be in life.

“I see governors, senators, presidents, commissioners among them and you can get among them, someone that can change the fortunes of others in the nearest future.”