By Ola ‘Kiya, Reporting
No fewer than 8,000 underage children are on the streets, especially at Koka and Ibusa Junctions of Asaba, hawking ‘pure water’ and other items during school hours.
Lamenting the ugly situation, Director General of the Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency (DSCTDA), Joan Onyemaechi, blamed the phenomenon on parents of the kids.
According to her, parents of the under-aged street traders, are to blame over failure to ensure proper care of their children and wards.
She told journalists in Asaba on Tuesday that under-aged children were becoming too frequent on the streets across the state capital when they were supposed to be in school.
Onyemaechi noted that the development has become a source of embarrassment to the state government.
She added that the proliferation of street trading would be discouraged with a view to ensuring that children are taken out of the streets.
Earlier, some of the hawkers, who spoke to journalists on condition of anonymity, said they ventured into hawking ‘pure water’ to earn a living, regretting that they have no benefactor to cater for them.
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