Most parents in the Sokoto metropolis have expressed concern over the continuous influx of underage children moving about the streets begging for alms for survival.
The children who were seen roaming along the streets within the metropolis were mostly from the Internally Displaced Persons in the state.
Recall that the rise in banditry and other forms of insecurity ravaging the Eastern Senatorial district of the state has caused most of the residents of the area to leave their communities for fear of being attacked by gunmen.
Our correspondent in the state, who monitored the incident, gathered that the children who were mostly between the ages of three and eight years were seen roaming the streets in search of food for survival.
It was observed that the children, including boys and girls, were mostly seen on the streets like Emir Yahya, Bello Way, Sahara, Manna, and Aliyu Jodi, among others.
When contacted, one of the victims, Abdullahi, a three-year-old boy accompanied by his six-year-old elder brother, Ibrahim, said their mother who was together with them at the Camp asked them to go look for food.
Abdullahi said their father had relocated to Gusau, leaving the children in the care of their mother who was also surviving on alms and gifts from the society.
Commenting on the ugly situation, a resident of the state, Mallam Nuhu Ibrahim, appealed to the government at all levels to urgently look for a measure out of the present predicament.
He said the issue of banditry especially in the Sokoto East Senatorial district should be dealt with to restore sanity to the area.
โThe rise in the IDPs camp in the state is a result of insecurity in some parts of the state and we are appealing to our government, especially the federal government to help us deal with the insecurity.
โOnce the security improves, most of these children you see on the streets will go back to their base and school as wellโ
