Nollywood actress, Kate Henshaw, says she and her friends have made arrangement to return the funds raised for Michael Alvez, a two-year-old boy born with an ulcerous growth in the face, the Punch reports. The actress has also reportedly asked Nigerians to stop paying into an account opened for the victim’s treatment. The development follows disagreement between the family and Henshaw over the baby’s welfare, which resulted in the family asking Henshaw to cease her involvement in the boy’s case.
The main cause of the disagreement seems to stem from accusations of fund mismanagement and non-fulfilment of a promise to fly the boy abroad for further medical treatment. Allegations, which Project Alert (an NGO which is also involved in the boy’s case) completely denied.
Kate became involved in the boy’s welfare when she was tagged on a picture of the boy on a social media post in March 2016. Prior to that, the boy’s mother, Mary, had reportedly used the boy to beg for alms in the Onikan area of Lagos State. It was during this time that passers-by took a picture of the baby and tagged the actress in a Twitter post, which was how she came to know of the boy’s condition and subsequently took interest in him.
Kate championed fundraising efforts for the treatment of the toddler at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba. She also got the involvement of Project Alert – a non-governmental women’s rights organisation that promotes and protects the rights of women and young girls – into the boy’s welfare.
However, a lot of drama has since followed the case and on 3 March 2017, a lawyer representing the family E.G. Adelemoni, wrote to the NGO and demanded a statement of the audited account of Michael’s medical fund.
According to punchng.com, the NGO stated through her legal officer, Benjamin Odeh “That Henshaw, Aramide Kasunmu (another member of the fundraising team), and members of the public were the donors to the account, hence the fund managers were accountable only to them.”
On Wednesday, Project Alert said it had agreed with Henshaw and Kasunmu to return all money contributions back to donors.
This report was curated from punchng.com
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