Mrs Ngohemba Agaigbe, a member of the Benue Assembly, has decried the increasing number of widows and orphans in the society, due largely to the incessant killings across the country.
Agaigbe said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Makurdi on Friday, that due to the untimely demise of their breadwinners, life had become very tough for the widows and orphans.
She, therefore, appealed to people in privileged positions to undertake the training of orphans in their communities as their primary responsibilities.
She said that the orphans needed care and education because most of them had nobody to take care of them.
She noted that many orphans were brilliant and intelligent, adding that if given quality education, they could be of immense benefit to the society.
Agaigbe further said that if given adequate care, they would shun societal vices, which most of them indulge in just to survive.
She disclosed that she was training 36 orphans in her constituency at primary to post-primary schools because she considered them as her own biological children.
“It is my sincere and humble desire that I see them through to university education.
“Anytime that their schools resume and I haven’t paid school fees, I hardly have sound sleep nor enjoy my meals.
“I am doing this from the depth of my heart and I pay their fees with joy because I know I am touching lives.
“I do not only pay their fees but I buy all their requirements in school.’’
“What I am doing is not scholarship because I buy virtually everything they need in school from pencil to the highest thing.
“I pray God to continue to give me the power to adequately take care of them, especially seeing them through their university education,’’ she said. (NAN)