Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Government has sent 150 vagrants to their home states in the North, Niger Republic, Ebonyi and Akwa Ibom as part of measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
The state profiled the affected persons and sent them to their states and country of origin through the Ministry of Social Welfare.
Rivers Commissioner for Social Welfare, Mrs. Inime Aguma, led other officials of the Ministry to profile all the vagrants before they were evacuated to their states and local government areas of origin.
Aguma said that the evacuation exercise was not discriminatory and but designed to protect Rivers people.
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She said that the exercise was not targeted at any ethnic group, but aimed at removing vagrants capable of spreading coronavirus on the streets.
She noted that adequate arrangements were being made to ensure that the vagrants were transported to their respective locations in dignity.
Governor Nyesom Wike during a state broadcast on Monday directed the State Commissioner for Social Welfare to round of and deport all vagrants to their states of origin.
He said: “We have also directed the Commissioner of Social Welfare to round-up and deport all vagrants, including the almajiris, to their States of origin to protect our people from the threat they present to the transmission of this pandemic”.
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