Lagos Warns Public Over Street Urchins(Agbero) Support

The Lagos street urchins crackdown is back in focus after Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources Tokunbo Wahab called out celebrities, influencers, and members of the public for financially supporting street beggars, popularly known as agberos, across the state.

Wahab made the appeal in a post on X on Sunday after being tagged in a documentary showing the activities of street urchins in various parts of Lagos.

Responding, he said the state government has repeatedly carried out operations to arrest and remove these groups from public spaces, but argued those efforts keep getting undermined.

"The state government has consistently apprehended and dislodged these street urchins from various locations across the state. However, the continued financial support and patronage they receive from some influencers, celebrities, and members of the public, as seen in this video, inadvertently encourage them to return to the streets and, in some cases, view it as a lucrative means of livelihood, while also breeding a sense of entitlement," Wahab wrote.

While acknowledging that maintaining law and order is the government's job, Wahab insisted the public has a role to play too.

"We therefore urge everyone to desist from activities that may inadvertently encourage lawlessness, insecurity, street begging, and environmental nuisance on our roads. Collective responsibility and cooperation are essential to building a safer, cleaner, and more orderly Lagos," he added.

This is not the first time Lagos's enforcement approach to street urchins has drawn public attention. Earlier this year, a similar raid carried out by the Lagos Waste Management Authority went viral after footage showed officers apprehending minors who were pleading and crying during the operation. Child welfare advocates criticized that particular enforcement action as inhumane, arguing that removing children from the streets does nothing to address why they ended up there in the first place, whether that is poverty, family breakdown, or lack of access to education and support services.

That tension, between the government's push for order and concerns about how vulnerable people, including children, are treated in the process, remains part of the wider conversation around this issue.

Wahab's comments also follow a separate midnight operation by the Lagos State Rapid Response Squad along the Lekki-Ajah Expressway, targeting individuals accused of harassing and extorting motorists. The commissioner said intelligence-driven enforcement would continue against activities threatening public safety and disrupting traffic across the state.