DAILY POST<\/a> at the popular old market in Lokoja, a beggar, who identified himself as Malam Abubakar Alli, expressed concern that he and his colleagues in the alms business no longer made enough money to feed.<\/p>\nAlli said: \u201dFew years back, I could boast of making N1,500 to N2,000 a day from begging, but for the past one year or so, I hardly make up to half of that amount.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another beggar, Mohammed Adamu, who noted that he lost his sight many years ago, said he has been finding it very difficult to cope with life due to diminishing earnings from begging.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot engage in meaningful physical work that can bring money to our pocket.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs persons with disabilities, we depend solely on other members of the society.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they keep on telling us is that they are also feeling the negative impact of the bad economy. We are dying of hunger. Where do we go from here?\u201d He asked.<\/p>\n
The beggars called on the State and the Federal Government to find meaningful solutions to the current social and economic challenges facing the country.<\/p>\n
DAILY POST reports that the cost of living in Kogi State, especially Lokoja, is very high.<\/p>\n
For instance, garri, a staple food hitherto regarded as the common man\u2019s food, has gone beyond purchasing capacity, with a measure of it skyrocketing from N500 to N2,200.<\/p>\n
A market survey by DAILY POST in Lokoja revealed that prices of rice, beans, noodles, semovita, meat, tomato, pepper, onion, maize, corn, fruits, groundnut oil, red oil, among others have hit the roof top.<\/p>\n
This is coupled with the high cost of transportation and other social services due to the removal of fuel subsidy by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beggars in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, have cried out over the declining rate of assistance from members…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2364,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-10812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-beggars","9":"tag-kogi"},"yoast_head":"\n
'Economic Hardship Killing Us,' Beggars in Kogi Cry Out\u00a0 - Ebira Reporters<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n