By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Barely a year after they lost their lives in a boat mishap while on an assignment to monitor the last Presidential and National Assembly elections at one of the riverine areas in Epe Local Government, Lagos State, the six victims are to be immortalised, courtesy of a group, AMBSAM Foundation, which has concluded plans in that regard in collaboration with Epe community.

The even is slated to be formally launched on March 28, 2016. The foundation’s name was adapted from the last names of the victims.

The victims were Prince Olakunle Adewale, Mr. Muiz Bello, Mr. Wale Mogaji, Mr. Agoro Samson, Mr. Mogaji Gbolahan and Mr. Tunde Salawu.

They died on March 28, 2015 in a boat mishap, an incident which  shock the all communities in Epe.

Briefing journalists at Alausa, Ikeja on the development, a member of the Board of Trustee of AMBSAM, Otunba Tunde Abass who spoke on behalf of other members of the foundation, said the primary aim of the foundation is to immortalise the victims and to cater for their immediate dependents.

He said: “The foundation will be used as a spring board to alleviate the sufferings of those other less-privileged and vulnerable youths in Epe division and beyond. A committee has been set up to collate the statistics and present it to the Board of Trustees for consideration.”

Fund mobilisation committee

He said to drive the initiative, an operational framework has been set in motion, adding that the foundation had set up a fund mobilisation committee saddled with the responsibility of mobilising the required funding from public spirited individuals.

Speaking further on funding, he said: “The foundation shall be run on financial donation and grants from government at all levels, philanthropists, public spirited individuals, non-governmental organisations.

The success story is that in the last few months, the response had been very encouraging and the start-up was made possible because of financial support received from members.”

According to Otunba Abass, beyond the launching of the foundation, AMBSAM has mapped out strategies and programmes to sustain the long term goals of the foundation, saying the programmes such as social awareness, learning and education as well as economic empowerment would be pursued vigorously.

“There is a plan to have a memorial park with a state of the art swimming pool accessible to members of the community whereby they can learn how to swim. This memorial park will be in the name of the fallen heroes,” he said.