Gombe – The Joint Association of People Living With Disability in Gombe State says it will soon embark on a campaign to sensitise its members to the dangers of street begging .

Alhaji Ali Goro, chairman of the association, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Gombe, on Friday, that the campaign would begin next week.

He attributed the influx of beggars into the state to the security challenges in the neighbouring states.

According to him, only 258,873 persons living with disability are indigenes of the state, adding that most of them have been engaged in small scale businesses.

He said that many of them had also been trained by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in different trades while others had gained admission into various institutions of learning.

“In Gombe, we discourage street begging, those begging in the street are not our members; they came from neighbouring states.

“During the campaign, we will advise them to find something to do, but certainly not begging.

“Here in Gombe, we do not encourage begging, so it is not going to be business as usual.” (NAN)