SAN FRANCISCO, January 15, (THEWILL) – Widows of soldiers slain during the war against Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East has cried out over their inability to access their late husbands’ benefits.
They lamented that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s stringent rule on the Bank Verification Number, BVN, has made many of their children to be sent parking from schools as they could not access their children fathers’ accounts to pay their school fees.
The widows also complained that they have in the last two months since the BVN came into full force, found it difficult to eat and have been turned to “begging widows.”
They made their complaints to officials of the Defence and Police Officers Wives Association, DEPOWA, in Maiduguri on Thursday.
The DEPOWA officials were led by its president, Omobolanle Olonishakin, the wife of the Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, to Maiduguri on a visit to widows, internally displaced persons and soldiers injured in the ongoing war against insurgents.
The wife of the CDS, who was accompanied by wives of other service chiefs, had led the team to give relief materials to widows, injured soldiers and IDPs, but was told by the widows at a meeting organized with them at the headquarters of the 7 Division Maiduguri that they have been made to go through untold hardship after losing their husbands as they could not access their accounts.
One of the widows who spoke, Mary Andrew, said: “We cannot access our husbands account because of no Central Bank Verification Number (BVN).”
“Our children have been thrown out of school and we have had to beg to feed ourselves.”
She added that they have remained jobless with little skill and without money.
Mrs. Olonishakin responded that: “If you are not doing anything, we have skills acquisition training in Abuja in bead making, tailoring, soap making and hair dressing.”
“After the training we will give you take-off loans and machines.”
She assured them that: “I will not let my husband rest until your problems are solved to make you comfortable.”
Earlier during their visit to the troubled state, wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Oludolapo Osinbajo, who was also in the delegation, joined in their visit to an IDP camp in the state, the Shehu of Borno palace and the office of the governor of the state.
Mrs. Osinbajo had described the wives of the service chiefs and inspector general of police as the Nigerian mothers and great women who have supported and catered for their husbands who are busy day and night sacrificing their lives for Nigerians.
She also commended the initiative of DEPOWA in donating various relief materials worth millions of naira to the internally displaced persons IDPs.
The wife of the Vice President who said she was on hand to represent the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, said the support was an initiative of the wives of the service chiefs and the IGP as solidarity to the government in the management of the IDPs.
According to her, “We see fear, we see tears, we see hope, we see trauma but we see hope and courage in the faces of the women and children. But I pray hope will soon come. I pray peace will return to our land in Jesus name. My prayer is our land will be repaired, our land will be restored again”.
“The wives of the service chief also don’t sleep at night as their husbands don’t also sleep at night. They are busy supporting and caring for their husbands. Looking at their husbands to look after Nigerians. They make us proud. When I arrive and saw these women of great soldiers standing to welcome me, I said to myself, these are women of husbands who sacrificed their lives for Nigerians and they too sacrificed their time and lives to be here in Maiduguri to show solidarity to the IDPs by way of supporting them with relief materials,” Mrs. Osinbajo said.
