YMCA Doles Out Cars, Others At Giveaway Prices

For hundreds of Ibadan residents, this year Easter Monday will remain indelible in their minds thanks to jumbo sales of goods running into millions of naira put together by the Young Men Christians Association (YMCA), Methodist Church, Bodija, Ibadan.

Goods ranging from cars, furniture, electronics, and home appliances, sequestrated from different homes of members of the church, were sold at reduced prices to the members of the public who had looked forward to the annual jumbo sales.

As early as 7am on the 5th day of April 2021, the premises of the church was besieged by a large crowd of people who were eager to pick various items for either their personal need or to be sold in order to make profit.

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The President of the association, Dr. Olujinmi Philips, and the Chairman of the annual jumbo sales, Mr. Taiwo Omotunde, while speaking with Rulers’ World, disclosed that the idea was conceived four years ago to cater for the needy in the society as well as to alleviate their sufferings. Mr. Philips said since the commencement of the initiative, a lot of people from far and near look forward to the day, stating that the valuables are picked from the homes of members who are not making use of them.

He said, “Some of the items, including cars, are not been used but rather waste away in garages of members for years. What we do is to request for them and they willingly give them out without collecting money and that is why we could sell the items at very low prices to members of the public who are in need of them”.

He stated further that in the case of vehicles and electronics that are kept for long, all they do was to service them and put them in good condition before giving them out to end-users, adding, however, that some buyers do volunteer to repair some of the items as long as they are in need of them.

While speaking on future collaboration with the government on the jumbo sales, Mr. Philips disclosed that the annual event was also to ginger government at all levels to do the same for members of the public who may be in need of various abandoned goods by various arms of government. He said, “Government at various levels keep so many items for too long before they auction them out enriching the auctioneers who sell the goods at higher prices to the public.”

Mr. Philip used the occasion to voice his concern on the state of insecurity in the country, urging security agencies and political leaders to discharge their duties with the fear of God for the country to attain its desired destination. “If our leaders fail to work on the security situation of this country, there will be problems, and for government to allow intermediaries between it and kidnappers, suggests that we are saying kidnapping is a lucrative business in the country.

Also speaking, Mr. Omotunde said the committee verified all the goods before taking them from members and ensured that they have the appropriate documents before presenting them to members of the public, assuring that none of the items could be tagged stolen if found with beneficiaries. “You can see we are issuing receipts with the serial numbers of the goods before selling them and more so those who donated the items to us gave out the original receipt of purchase.”

The highlight of the event was the release of a Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen Sharon’s to non-members of the church, for N210, 000 and N250,000, respectively.