About 250 beggars in Ibadan, on Thursday, reportedly protested against low patronage by members of the public following a recent rumour that some rich men usually ‘buy’ money from them for fetish purposes.
The spokesperson for the destitute, Imam Abubakar Abdullahi, Serikin Hausawa of Hausawa Community, Oja’ba, Ibadan, said such a report had created deep hatred for his people.
According to him, the set of persons who ask beggars to help them with smaller denominations of the naira are traders, hawkers and commercial bus drivers.
Abdullahi said: “The reports that some wealthy people are buying money from beggars, including 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 these 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.”