How Davido’s N250m Donation Was Shared To Fake, Nonexistent Orphanages

The Association of Orphanages and Homes Operators in Nigeria, ASOHON, has claimed that unregistered, closed down and non-existent homes benefitted from Davido’s N250 million donation to orphans in Nigeria.

The national president of the association, Rev Dr. Gabriel Oyedeji, blamed the development on the committee that supervised the disbursement.

Oyedeji, who disclosed this at a press conference in Lagos, said the committee failed to properly identify, verify, and confirm credible homes and orphanages during the disbursement.

Oyedeji confirmed that about 292 orphanages supposedly benefited from the benevolence of the music star, but noted that the challenges encountered in the disbursement would have been avoided if officials of the association were included in the committee set up by Davido.

He said, “We deeply appreciate Davido and hereby formally confirm that the fund was properly released. We also wish to confirm the disbursement though it was dotted with some hitches. We are not unaware of the inherent complications of identifying, verifying, and confirming credible homes and orphanages by the committee saddled with the responsibility.

“We presented a total of 592 credible homes and orphanages across the country but only 292 were touched. Even so, several unregistered homes closed down homes and non-existing homes were also included in the 292 benefiting from the initiative,” he said

“From our calculations, we figure that the sharing modality adopted by the Committee assigned by David allocated the average rate of N25,000 per orphan in the beneficiary homes. We also noticed some dis-equilibrium in the rating, as some homes got fewer than the number of orphans in their homes while several others got nothing.

“Nevertheless, we want to appreciate the committee for the stress they went through in the disbursement. We further note that the accreditation, verification, and disbursement would have been better and easier had our association officials been included in the panel chosen for the disbursement”.

He further stated that the association had engaged the committee’s chairman on the gaps identified.

Oyedeji also appealed to homes left out in the initiative to be patient, as they would be favourably considered in future exercise.

While applauding Davido’s initiative, he urged Nigerians to emulate the singer and reach out to orphans in homes across the country;

He added that over the years, no home operator in the country received sustained grants or funds from the government to run their homes.

Oyedeji, therefore, called on the House of Representatives to strengthen the existing regulatory organs, rather than create another supervisory body to manage orphanages as proposed in a bill before the federal lawmakers.