The Lagos State Chapter of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), the umbrella body of disability clusters across Lagos State, has demanded that the Lagos State Government wade into the current investigation into kickback allegations against LASODA.
The group, in a press statement signed by its Chairman, Barrister Lukman Bolarinwa, said the investigation should be subjected to independent oversight, “given that the agency under investigation cannot credibly be the sole judge of its own conduct.”
The press statement was issued in response to an investigative story published by The PUNCH Newspapers, which documented allegations that officials administering LASODA’s Disability Intervention Fund have demanded kickbacks from beneficiary organisations before releasing grants, and that some organisations that refused to pay have allegedly been blacklisted from further support.
Responding to the allegation and LASODA’s response that a suspected officer has been identified, and that the matter has been referred to the appropriate authority for disciplinary consideration in line with Lagos State Public Service procedures, JONAPWD Lagos says it awaits the outcome of the investigation.
JONAPWD decried that “every year, several million naira is recorded as expended by LASODA in support of disability-focused NGOs, homes, and clusters. Yet neither JONAPWD, nor the disability clusters we represent, nor the media, nor the Lagos State public has ever been given a clear, published account of exactly how much is disbursed, to which organisations, and on what basis.”
The group noted that, “LASODA has no business funding NGOs. It is not the statutory responsibility of a government disability agency to serve as a grant-making body for NGOs, particularly where no transparent framework exists to govern who receives what, and why, and where such arrangements have now become the subject of corruption allegations.”
The group demanded that “the millions currently being expended on this funding arrangement should instead be redirected to direct, sustained social protection interventions for persons with disabilities themselves, most notably a structured cash transfer programme targeted at verified persons with disabilities across all clusters in Lagos State.”
JONAPWD, through its chairman, Salami, also called on the “Lagos State House of Assembly to demand a full, public disclosure of LASODA’s NGO funding disbursements over the past five years, including the names of all recipient organisations, the amounts received, and the criteria applied, independent of and in addition to the ongoing internal investigation.”