The former coordinator of the now-defunct Nigeria Chapter of a pro-choice civil society organisation based in Washington, United States, the International Youth Alliance for Family Planning (IYAFP), Offor Hope Jeremiah, has reacted to the allegation of fraudulently receiving funding from the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) through the Safe Abortion Action Fund (SAAF).

An online Newspaper had reported that, Mr Jeremiah Offor, 25, approached the IPPF, a London-based International NGO, for a $78,748 fund to help adolescent girls in Borno State access safe abortion.

According to the report, Offor proposed an all-year-round programme with activities ranging from training of medicals who would provide safe medical abortion services, to recruitment of girls and women educators, and then the facilitation of classes and community meetings among others, all in the Damboa and Magumeri local government areas of Borno State.

IPPF approved the proposal and in December 2019 released about $40,000 (N16million) initial tranche from its Safe Abortion Action Fund (SAAF), where changemakers around the world source finances for health-related actions.

Mr Offor had requested for the fund on behalf of the organization and had featured some members in the proposal without their consent, the journalist claimed.

The report claimed Offor did not execute the project. He manufactured a narrative report for the first half of the year 2020. Although SAAF played in and released the second tranche, which was over $30,000, it would learn of possible fraud, confirmed in an investigation by the international body of IYAFP which linked Offor to a string of fraudulent activities.

Reacting to the report, Offor who clarified his age as 23, said that the claim that he collected 16 million Naira and that he did not execute the project were both false.

Mr Offor said the investigation was malicious and not based on true events. He also urged the public to disregard the report as it is false.

He said; “I am Offor Hope Jeremiah and my attention has been drawn to an article published on the FIJ website that alleged that I have fraudulently received funding from the IPPF through the Safe Abortion Action Fund and I am writing to correct this misrepresentation that has been all over social media.

“First, I have been working as an activist in the sexual and reproductive health and rights space since 2014 during my 2nd Year at the University of Benin, where I started as a youth volunteer with the Edo State Office of the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria. This was based on my passion for ensuring that young people particularly adolescent girls and young women do not die from preventable causes like unplanned pregnancies and lack of comprehensive sexuality education and my hard work in the space over the years has been rewarded by notable international bodies including the European Commission for International Development and Cooperation, the Harvard University Ministerial Leadership Program and Civicus to mention a few.

“My stay of time in this space has gone to show my work was passion-driven and never financially motivated.

“In 2019, as the then Country Coordinator for the International Youth Alliance for Family Planning-Nigeria, we were invited to submit a full funding proposal to the Safe Abortion Action Fund and after a proposal technical workshop in Kigali, Rwanda, the proposed funding was increased from 40,000 USD to 79,708 USD after the funders saw how important the work I was proposing was. The Youth Spotlight Initiative (YSI) was accepted by the donor to act as IYAFP-Nigeria fiscal holder.

“On the 29th of December 2019, Mr Isaac of YSI informed me that his organization had received the first tranche of SAAF funding of 39,855 USD which was 14,347,800 in Nigerian Naira.

“In early January, I received a Representative of the donor organization who was sent to conduct a monitoring visit on 3 organizations they were funding in Nigeria including IYAFP-Nigeria. He went through the proposed activities and for 4 days provided us expert advice on how to implement the project activities in line with the Donor's requirements.

“That same weekend he left Abuja for Lagos to visit the other organizations, I embarked on a trip to Maiduguri to join the PPMVs training. For the first 3 months of the project, we were on track, meeting our KPIs until the Pandemic and the pandemic restrictions struck and we had to adapt our activities to the Covid-19 realities, budget was amended and activities were adapted.

“We were even invited by the Donor to apply for additional funding that could help us adapt our activities to the Covid-19 realities which I refused as our original budget had allowances that could allow us to adapt our activities in the light of Covid-19.

“For the next three months April through June, the project team struggled with project implementation and this impressed the donor who wanted us to write a blogpost on how youth-led organizations like ours were adapting their work to the Covid-19 restrictions. That was how much hard work we invested in activities implementation despite the pandemic.

“By June Ending, we submitted the first report, which included financials, Monitoring and Evaluation and narrative, It took up to a month to get this approved by the donor as the approval team were very thorough, they needed evidence for every data and metric we were reporting for/against.

“After a whole month of back and forth the first report was approved and the second tranche of 12,115, 920 Naira was disbursed to the same YSI account this time the owner of the corporate account; Mr Isaac Ejekhagbe refused to send across the money and as such myself and the team at Maiduguri couldn't continue further with the project implementation.

“I tried micromanaging but he still wouldn't yield and nothing the sensitivity of the project subject matter (safe abortion) we couldn't make much noise about it.

“The Donor became aware and to prevent further drama asked we suspend all activities and close out on the project to prevent our work from going public. As part of the project contract agreement, an external audit would be carried out at the end of the project cycle and this took place.

“In September 2020, I got contacted by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, they had received funding from a large anonymous Donor for another Safe Abortion Project for 5 African Countries with Nigeria being one of them.

“They needed my expertise in helping them understand the abortion programming landscape in Nigeria and how I could support them in implementing the project in-country, they offered me their membership as an Associate of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

“They asked I recommend safe abortion champions to them and share with them the call for application and I shared it widely with allies in the safe abortion space in Nigeria including with Enitan Sophie Oluwa and Nwabuma Omola Daniel who both got into the RCOG program and they were also promised the Associate of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists membership by their induction in 2021.

“But problem broke again, December a team member by the name of Micheal Ihenacho wrote a proposal to the UKPHS and added RCOG as a partner due to the partnership we were developing already with the RCOG and copied RCOG contact mail in the proposal submission, the UKPHS contacted RCOG and they weren't pleased with all with this, they got on a call with me about this and on the IYAFP-Nigeria mailbox there wasn't a mail to that effect, it was already deleted by Mr Micheal.

“I requested a copy of the proposal from the RCOG and in that document, Enitan and Daniel Omola were mentioned as implementing team. This led to the RCOG taking both myself, Daniel and Enitan off the project.

“IYAFP Global carried out an investigation into this and couldn't hold any one individual liable for that mail (until this article) and decided to suspend their operations in Nigeria.

“I would also want to use this statement to formally apologize to Olaoluwa Abagun and Idehen Melanie, 2 ladies in the SRHR space I have built meaningful relationships with for years. In the pre-proposal, I added their names as proposed team members without their knowledge nor consent.

“As I have had conversation about working with them but never sought their consent to be included in the proposal. I deeply apologise for this human error to both ladies and state that in no way were they involved during the project from conceptualization through implementation. I had to reconstitute the team upon contract signing to capture persons based at project location. I am deeply sorry about this human error on my part and I have personally dropped apologies to both ladies. And also my apologies to Enitan and Daniel, the UKPHS issue happened under my leadership and I have worked so hard pulling strings to restore her and Daniel to the RCOG associateship.

“Right from my days as a student politician at the University of Benin never was I involved in a scandal, worst still, a financial scandal. I have worked in this space even when there was no whisper of profit but my passion has kept me put allowing me to carry out some amazing work that has empowered more women and girls with agency over their bodies and their health and this has gotten me both local and international recognition.

“The FIJ article claimed I received 16m which was wrong and I never implemented the project which was wrong again which goes to show that the reporter was not keen on getting the truth but to tarnish my reputation and my name which I had painstakingly worked to build in a very controversial space, even Mr Kenneth reached out to me that even the quote that was alluded to him on that blogpost was false as he never said that to the reporter (how far they would go to create a sensational story)

“I am only a 23-year-old man who is working to create an impact especially for the millions of underserved women and girls to who I have dedicated my life to their service and also make a living for myself and this untrue scandal won't deter me rather it has only made me more resilient. I call on anyone who still insists I have kept the first tranche of the grant to please come forward with evidences.

“I wish to appeal to friends and partners both in the local and international sphere of influence to please disregard the false publication of the FIJ as the investigation was malicious and not based on true events.”

https://featured24.com/news/iyafp-alleged-n16m-fraud-setting-the-record-straight-jeremiah-offor-2006

Lala Seun Mynd44