It was to support this reason that a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Lieutenant Colonel Kabiru Yusuf Help for Heroes Foundation, recently launched an initiative to help alleviate the sufferings encountered by the families of slain army officers. They have, therefore, also called upon well meaning Nigerians, corporate organisations etc to lend their support in assisting the widows and family members.
At the official launch of the foundation, the matron of the Lieutenant Colonel Kabir Yusuf Help For Heroes Foundation, Hajia Shola Raji expressed optimism that the renewed intervention and call to government and Nigerians to the plight of the families of slain army heroes will mark a new beginning for them. She said this while making donations to some of the widows in Kaduna last Friday.
“The Lieutenant Colonel Kabiru Yusuf Help For Heroes Foundation is a non-governmental organisation and charity group, rolled out to immortalise Late Lieutenant. Colonel Kabiru Yusuf, who died whilst in active service defending his father’s land. It would be recalled that he (Kabiru) went missing in action when his battalion were attacked by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents at Ghashigar in Maiduguri, Borno State on 16th October, 2016. Kabiru was later found dead by the river bank, three months after and laid to rest on 06 January, 2017.
We have thus aimed at remembering him by extending hands of help and providing succour to widows of fallen heroes and injured soldiers in the war front, both serving and retired Nigerian armed forces. The vision is to provide a kind of additional assistance, which will in turn compliment the support carried out by the Nigerian armed forces to such families. While we are doing what we can, we need support from other partners and well wishers because we are really committed to assisting and contributing to what the armed forces widows association is giving to them,” she said.
Hajia Raji said that because security is very important to everyone, the foundation decided to focus on making life easier for families of slain soldiers, who sacrificed their lives in ensuring that others are safe.
The presentation of items to the widows was done to commission their Kaduna office last Friday, while assuring that the NGO would be officially launched on January 6, 2018.
In her remarks, the Magajiya of 1 Division Nigerian Army, Mrs. Rita Elias, described the gesture as noble, while praying for God to sustain the NGO, so that many more widows can benefit from its largesse.
“We are grateful for this wonderful initiative. You have done well to bring this foundation to help widows. We all recall how soldiers suffer because of Boko Haram and the widows they leave behind need support. We have tried, through the Association for Nigerian Army wives, to, from time to time seek assistance for our women and children. It is thus, very encouraging that the family of a slain soilder is doing this,” she said.
Also speaking, wife of late Lieutenant Colonel Yusuf, Bashirat, said that the foundation was established by her husband’s brother, Alhaji Moshood Kayode Yusuf, to immortalise him after his demise on January 6, 2016. Items distributed to the widows included cash, vegetable oil, toiletries and fabrics.
Alhaji Moshood Yusuf, in his reaction to the Nigerian Tribune stressed that more assistance was needed for the families of slain soldiers and other security agencies.
“We need to inspire loyalty. If the families of the dead, killed in service are not well taken care of, how will the living service men do more for their fatherland?”, he said.
and then