A group of aggrieved beggars in Ibadan, Oyo State have expressed disappointment over the low patronage that they currently experience following the rumour doing the rounds that some people buy money from them for ritual.
Rumour went viral within the state lately following a recent radio programme which highlighted that some members of the public now enhance their fortunes to ‘get rich quick’ by using alms collected by beggars for money ritual.
The Serikin Hausawa of Hausa Community, Oja’ba, Ibadan, who spoke on behalf of the destitute, Imam Abubakar Abdullahi, said the news had affected their business.
This, he said, had created deep hatred against the beggars.
“The reports that some wealthy people are buying money from beggars, including the physically-challenged people, for money rituals is not true.
“As a result of the claim that some ritualists do buy money from these beggars, there has been public resentment against the innocent people.
“What we know is that traders, hawkers and commercial drivers do come to these beggars who are mainly blind and lame people to change money (get smaller denominations).
“We need to clear our names so that people will not be punishing us for offences we don’t know anything about,” Abdullahi said.
Some of the beggars said they used to make average of N3,000 per day from which their masters buy food for them after giving them between N200 and N250 daily, before the rumour viral news. They, however, said they hardly make one third of the initial proceeds now.
