By Baba Shehu Oscu, Bauchi
Bauchi State Orphans and Vulnerable Agency (BASOVCA) explained it has no hand in the distribution of assistance from Islamic International Relief Organisation (IIRO) to orphans and vulnerable children across the state as the exercise was not done by its officials.
The State Chairman of BASOVCA, Ibrahim Abdullahi, stated this while shedding more light on the role of the agency in the distribution of the relief to orphans in the State.
He said “all the funds released to the beneficiaries were paid directly by the IIRO officials who came with their cheques written to the beneficiaries and were paid at Stanbic IBTC.”
He said the programme was not that of the agency and didn’t initiate it.
“In fact, we heard about the assistance through Sheikh Ibrahim Disina and the IIRO wrote to the agency and asked for assistance to find the orphans,” Abdullahi explained.
According to him, BASOVCA didn’t even budget for the programme but only assisted at identifying beneficiaries from across the 20 local government areas of the state.
He explained that the 13 percent deduction was administrative money the agency used to find the whereabouts of the beneficiaries and other responsibilities and was agreed it be removed from the funds of each beneficiary.
Abdullahi said even the Islamic scholar present at the meeting said it’s allowed even in Islam if you work for the wealth of the orphans to take your pay.
Recently there were series of complains that trailed the distribution of the assistance with complaint including sidelining the initiators of the project, deduction of 13 percent directly from money allocated to each beneficiary and many accredited persons omitted.
