Condemnations have trailed the indiscriminate arrest and dumping together of beggars and mentally ill persons picked from the streets of Enugu State at a psychiatrist facility by the state’s Ministry of Gender. It was learnt that officials of the ministry in an attempt to sanitize the state have continued to raid major streets for beggars and mentally derailed persons.
But rather than separate them, when they are caught, they are being lumped together at the Neuropsychiatric Clinic belonging to Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Emene due to the dilapidation and non-functionality of the state’s rehabilitation centre. The Neuropsychiatric Clinic is meant for mentally derailed persons.
The Guardian, which visited the neuropsychiatric clinic at the weekend discovered no fewer than 30 beggars including elderly men and women, children and youths as well as disabled persons, locked up and waiting to be “bailed” with many mentally derailed persons at the facility. Read more