About 500 widows and vulnerable women in Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi State have benefitted from a philanthropic gesture of a humanitarian group, Bulus Iliya Foundation for Development.
The Foundation is the brainchild of a Bauchi-based philanthropist and a House of Assembly candidate to represent Bogoro constituency in the state House of Assembly on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Bulus Iliya.
Iliya yesterday distributed over 1,000 10kg bags of rice worth over N1.5million to the widows and other vulnerable women in addition to N1,000 as transportation fare.
Speaking during the distribution of the support items to the widows and other women in Bogoro, headquarters of Bogoro LGA of the state, Iliya said the Foundation was established not to acquire wealth for himself, but to give back to the society by caring for the less privileged persons in the society such as widows and other vulnerable women.
Iliya, who was an aide to the immediate-past Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, said: “I have been doing this philanthropic gesture even before I came out to aspire for this position, so this is not something new.”
According to him, “I am not doing this on the basis of my party, APC, because not all the widows and other women gathered here are in the APC; there are others in other political parties, and I don’t discriminate on the basis of party.”
“You will notice that I did not shout the APC slogan during the distribution of the items because I did not want any of them who belong to other political parties to feel offended.
This is a philanthropic gesture.”Iliya added that: “In the previous years, the Foundation distributed clothes but this time around, we changed based on the current situation in the country-the people are hungry and need food.”
He charged the beneficiaries not to contemplate selling the items but use it to feed their families for a little period it will last, saying: “Eat the rice and have strength to pray for peace in Bogoro, Bauchi State and Nigeria. Pray for peaceful the conduct of the 2023 general election.”
