Nothing less than 300 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Bakassi local government area of Cross River have benefited from the free medical outreach conducted by the 13 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Calabar.
Brig.-Gen. Sani Mohammed, Commander of the Brigade told News Agency of Nigeria that We are here today to offer free medical treatment to the IDPs. When you look around and see where they are camping, you will believe that they really need adequate medical care.
“We are here with our full medical team that will carry out different test on the IDPs and also administer them with drugs.
“Earlier today, we also carried out a similar medical outreach in the barracks where the children/wards of soldiers and friends of the Army were equally tested and administered with drugs.”
He explained that the outreach is part of Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai’s vision on civil-military relations.
The IDPs who are camping at Ikot Effiong/Obutong primary school in Bakassi local government area of the state were tested for malaria, blood pressure, hepatitis, typhoid and fever, among others, while drugs were equally administered to them.
While speaking, the Coordinator of the camp, Mr Aston Inyang said Our greatest challenge here is that we lack adequate medical care and the young ladies who are pregnant always feel it more.
“We have not been given fair attention as it concerns health. Our camp is so large that we are supposed to have our own separate health care centre built by the government.
“From 2009 to now, we have lost over 40 persons which include women, men and children and a lot are still under medical challenges because they have no money to access medical treatment.”