Kanyi Okeke
Nigerian ex-international, Rashidi Yekini. This was made known yesterday after
the state executive council meeting by the Commissioner for Youth and Sports,
Hon Dapo Lam-Adesina.
According to him, the endowment fund, which will be
strictly for the children of the late football star, would be managed in
conjunction with the family of the deceased.
The government, which said
it was mobilizing all segments of the society, beginning with members of the
state executive council, well-meaning individuals, cooperate organisations and
other state governments to donate to the fund, promised that it would ensure
that the children left behind by the fallen football hero do not suffer in the
absence of their father.
Lam-Adesina, who said that the state government
had started the endowment fund with N5 million, added that this had become
necessary because the late football star once played for the Oluyole Warriors
(the Shooting Stars) and was domiciled in the state capital for a number of
years.
“This is in line with the philosophy of the Ajimobi administration to
ensure that the labour of our heroes past is not in vain. The government will
not relent in offering assistance to people who have served the state
meritoriously in one capacity or the other whenever the need arises,” the
commissioner said.
It would be recalled that the state government, which
was represented at the funeral of the late football star in Irra, Kwara State,
by the state commissioner for youth and sports, had earlier donated the sum of
N1million to the family of the late Yekini.
Only a few months ago, Governor
Abiola Ajimobi, had risen to support another Shooting Stars’ ex-player, Samuel
Ojebode, who was lying critically ill at the University College Hospital,
Ibadan.
