NGO to pay school fees of children whose parents were killed in Owo church massacre

A non-governmental organisation based in the United Kingdom, the IA-Foundation, has offered to pay the school fees of children whose parents were killed by terrorists who attacked the St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, on June 5.

The Chief Executive Officer of the IA-Foundation, Ibironke Adeagbo who disclosed this on Sunday at a press conference in Abuja, said the NGO decided to take over the schooling of children of victims of the massacre so they won’t be forced to drop out of school.

“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,” Adeagbo stated.

Read also:Names, photos of Owo massacre victims released as church holds mass burial

She added that the IA-Foundation, which has been at the forefront of promoting child rights in Nigeria and 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.”

She said the NGO recently offered scholarships to over 50 deprived children in Lagos State to give them access to education and promised that the organisation also would assist the Edo State government to take out-of-school children in the state back to their classrooms.

She said the gesture was as a result of a recent pronouncement by Governor Godwin Obaseki that the state would henceforth, prosecute parents and guardians whose children and wards are out of school.

“Every Nigerian child has an inalienable right to education, and we are pleading with the federal government to put measures in place to eradicate the incidences of out-of-school children in Nigeria and ensure that the kids are returned to schools,” she said.

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