By Dapo Akinrefon

THE Oodua Progressive Union, OPU, on Wednesday, donated about N5 million to South-West states— Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti— to cushion the effects of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

Kwara and Kogi states also benefitted from the largesse.

The fund, which was directly deposited into each state’s COVID-19 committees’ accounts, is the financial intervention of the OPU members’ resolution at the end of its world congress in January.

The Convener of OPUC, Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, disclosed that the donation will be given to those directly affected by the pandemic, adding that the donation was from the contribution of individual members all over the world.

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OPU is a non-governmental, non-religious organisation established to foster unity among the Yoruba race and provide a formidable platform for all Yoruba sons and daughters in the Diaspora for the purpose of working for the common interest of the people.

Iba Adams said: “It is very important that all of us, as an international group, help the less-privileged and remember millions of our people that are staying at home at this moment because of coronavirus, and most especially those that are sick due to the virus.”

The Chairman of OPU’s COVID-19 Fund Raising Committee, Mr. Larry Aderoju, said that “helping the victims at this critical time is important as history would not forget those that have deemed it fit to help in whatever little way they could.”

He added that the financial intervention has become urgent having taken into consideration the gradual spread, and the increase in the numbers of people that have contacted the disease in Nigeria and the South West States in particular.

Also speaking, the organisation’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Zacheaus Somorin, said that having spread across the world in terms of quality membership, it is expected that Yoruba sons and daughters in Diaspora would always rise to the occasion.

Vanguard