Lawmaker Donates Polo Tournament Proceeds to Orphanage

* Gov Sule lauds initiative

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Chairman, Senate Public Account Committee (SPAC), Senator Ahmed Wadada, has donated proceeds from a week-long 2024 annual Polo tournament, which ended in Keffi Tuesday, to all the orphanage homes in Nasarawa State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The senator, who is representing Nasarawa West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, is the founder of Keffi Polo Ranch, which organised the annual event with support from Flour Mills Nigeria Plc.

The 2024 Keffi Polo Ranch Open Tournament was meant to raise funds for orphans in the state and the FCT.

The final match between Team Malcomines and Team Keffi Ponys ended 3-3, with Team Malcomines emerging champions due to accumulated points gathered in the week-long annual tournament, which started on June 24.

The event attracted dignitaries within and outside the state, including Governor Abdullahi Sule, members of the National Assembly, political office holders, top government functionaries, captains of industries, traditional rulers, sports enthusiasts and children from various orphanage homes.

The senator, who organised the event, told journalists that proceeds from the tournament would be donated to the orphans as part of his contributions to their well-being.

He said: “We do not intend to venture into anything other than taking care of the orphans that are in all the orphanages that you have seen here.

“We will take stock of the needs of all the various orphanages and then go to the market, get what we can from the proceeds from this tournament and take to them. 

“Like you heard from the proprietor of one of the orphanages, some orphanages will need foodstuffs, some will need clothes for the orphans, and then some may need educational support as well. 

“We support the schools that they are taken to. 

“As a leader, a political leader, I should do all I can to make life better and much more meaningful for my people. Of course, orphans are children of God. 

“We all know in all the scriptures, the Bible and the Quran all spoke about, the orphans. And in giving back to the society, I think there is no better people in the society that one should give attention to than the orphans.

“This is because they are very vulnerable and they need all the support which is why we have been supporting them as a mark of responsibility to make life more livable.”

He commended Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN) for supporting the annual event since 2015. 

Governor Sule commended Wadada for organising a tournament aimed at improving the welfare of the orphans.

Sule said the gesture would  assist orphans in the state with their needs and help them actualise their dreams in spite of their situation.

He noted that Wadada’s gesture was in line with what President Bola Tinubu had always advocated, which was for leaders and well-meaning Nigerians to support and cater to the less privileged and orphans.

The governor pledged to continue to support Wadada and other well-meaning Nigerians who advocate initiatives to improve the lives of orphans and the less privileged in the state.

According to him, “Initiatives like this must be encouraged and must always be supported so that it will remain alive and continue.”