Widows Of Fallen Heroes Receive Palliatives From Defence, Nigerian Legion

In a bid to ease the effects of the removal of the fuel subsidy, Defence Headquarters and the Nigerian Legion brought together widows of Fallen Heroes from across the country to support them with palliatives.

During the distribution, which took place at the Headquarters, Nigerian Legion Abuja, the Security Officer for widows, Captain Helen Mukaila who spoke on behalf of the Defence Headquarters explained that the gesture was out of the sales of the Armed Forces and Remembrance Day emblem.

According to her, “the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) deemed it fit to be a blessing to the widows of our fallen heroes and that’s why we are here”.

Captain Mukaila said the DHQ recognizes the difficulties in recent times in the country hence the need to put smiles on faces of the widows.

“Obviously what we are just doing here today is a little out of what we have planned for them. We cannot pay for the loss, we can only feel their pains, so this is just a little token for them to know that we are part of them, we have them in our hearts”.

Responding, the President, Nigeria Military Widows Association, Mrs. Gift Aloko, said the widows were full of appreciation for the kindness shown to them by the Defence Headquarters and Nigeria Legion.

She explained that distribution of the palliatives from the DHQ was the first as the Military Wives Associations such as DEPOWA, NAOWA and others have been on such missions for years representing the arms of the armed forces.

“You can see from the DEPOWA, NAOWA they give to widows from state to state. Like I said, this is a pinch of what they have in stock for us. I think we’ll start seeing it in future because we have other things in line from the sales of stickers, we have our training and skills acquisition by the Nigeria Defence headquarters”.

“If you take care of Children of widows of fallen heroes I think the burden will be a bit less. One of the things we actually need is the issue of accommodation, by the time the widows and children of the fallen heroes leave the barracks, where will they be going? If they can make some places, maybe some land available in the Barracks, so we can build something like for the widows, we cannot afford to train some of our children, they are sitting at home still feeding without a job. So, we need jobs for Widows and our children”.

Some of the items distributed include bags of rice, gallons of groundnut oil, cartons of indomie, spaghetti, tomato paste, bags of corn, salt and a cash gift.

Salihu Tejumola, Edited By Grace Namiji