UK Charity to Pay School Fees of Children Whose Parents Died in Owo Massacre

The UK-based international charity, IA-Foundation, has offered to take over the schooling of children of victims of the Owo massacre in Ondo state.

Chief Executive Officer of IA-Foundation, Ibironke Adeagbo, made the announcement in a telephone interview on Sunday in Abuja.

“IA-Foundation will take care of the payment of the school fees and other related expenditures of the children who have become orphans, following the Owo attack until the completion of their secondary education,” she stated.

IA-Foundation, which has been at the forefront of promoting child rights in Nigeria has been working assiduously to reduce the number of out-of-school in the West African country, which is home to 10.5 million out-of- school kids.

The group recently offered scholarships to 50 deprived children in Lagos State, to enable them to have access to education.

The organisation also said that it would assist the Edo government to take out-of-school children in the state back to their classrooms.

She was reacting to a recent pronouncement by the Edo Governor, Godwin Obaseki, that the state would prosecute parents and guardians whose children and wards are out of school.

Mr Obaseki, who made the pronouncement in a speech to mark the World Day Against Child Labour, commemorated globally on June 12, vowed prosecution for parents and guardians of out-of-school children.

Speaking also on the finding of one of the girls kidnapped by jihadists eight years ago from Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok in Borno in Nigeria’s North-East, Mrs Adeagbo said the development was heart-warming.

She said that every Nigerian child had an inalienable right to education, pleading with the federal government to put measures in place to eradicate abductions of Nigerian kids while in school.

(NAN)