Maternal Mortality: Doctor Remembers Mother with Free Medical Outreach for Ondo community

Gbemile Oluwatosin 

A Non-Governmental Organisation, BalmGilead Life Support recently concluded a two-day health awareness and free medical services at Ilutitun, Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State.

Speaking with the media on the first day of the outreach, the initiator of the outreach, Dr. Adegboyega Akenroye, said the outreach was in honour of his late mother, Madam Victoria Aderemilekun Akenroye.

My mother lost her life 50 years ago as a result of complications from childbirth and it was challenging growing up without a mother, though my father was supportive, he explained. Further explaining the circumstances of his mother’s demise 50 years ago, Dr. Akenroye said that his mother was in labour for three days and three nights because the baby was breached and there was no available medical facilities and personnel on time that could have saved both mother and child.

Akenroye, who heads BalmGilead Hospital in Lagos, regrets that 50 years after, maternal mortality rates still remain high. Women should not die because they are pregnant and people should get enough information necessary to stop the unnecessary deaths. That is why we are raising a foundation in remembrance of my mother. It is wrong that many women still die out of ignorance to access the available medical facilities and to utilize them, he said.”

Participants trooped out in their hundreds to the Comprehensive High School, Ilutitun venue of the health outreach as early as 7am to take advantage of the services. About one thousand people came for the free treatment that included check-ups for blood pressure, blood sugar level, BMI, and treatment of various diseases. There were free surgical operations while free medicated eye glasses were handed out as well. There were also counseling services.

On the various ailments treated, Akenroye said the medical team encountered different cases. “There are cases needing surgical intervention. We had cases of hernia, infertility, fibroids, dental cases among others. Many malaria and bacteria infectious cases were also treated. Some have chronic diseases, like arthritis, diabetics, hypertension, insomnia and geriatric diseases and were assisted. A lot of people with high blood pressure, and other chronic diseases were screened, counseled and treated for the first time. This program has helped them to know their health status, he stated.

He also lamented the ignorance the people live with regarding their health. There is a major problem while the people are not aware of what the hospitals have in stock. We had to educate them about medical facilities we have brought. Many in the community had problem with going to hospitals to get information about their health and available health provisions.

Dr Akenroye recalled how his mother died young because of delay in accessing medical facilities. “She was in labour for three days and three nights because they could not even transport her to where to get medical assistance. Even when she was eventually transported to the general hospital, the only doctor had travelled. She had to wait for another 24 hours to get the emergency treatment she needed. However, despite a surgical intervention, she lost her life due to post-operative complications.

“Unfortunately, even 50 years after, according to the statistics available there are about 5,000 mothers that still died after child birth last year and those were the ones reported.

Also helping out at the health outreach was a retired Chief Medical Consultant at the Ondo State Specialist Hospital Akure, Dr. Manuwa Idowu Akenroye and Dr Ilesami Ogunsuyi, the director of Medical services at the Federal Prisons in Ondo State.

The Consultant and uncle to the initiator of the project added that, Dr. Akenroye’s mother died during child birth when he was a little boy. Fortunately I was with him I know all the story and when he turned around and told me he wants to do this I said that is a good thought and I wish him well.

The program is about preventing mothers and children from dying. To me if we can dedicate a day every year to remember this woman with this kind of event, it is worth it.

Mrs. Monisola Akenroye, and accountant and the wife of the initiator of the project who was deeply involved in the planning, expressed satisfaction and fulfillment at the success of the outreach. I feel fulfilled I know that what we are doing now is exactly what God really wants us to do. This is not the first outreach but this is the first major one because we have had series of outreaches in America where we raised fund for children living with cancer. We have also raised fund for St. Joseph’s home, a motherless babies home, and for abandoned mothers homes. We have been doing it in our small ways but this is the first major outing and we are thrilled about the outcome. She promised that it would henceforth be a regular event.

On the NGOs future plan, she revealed that, What we intend to do is to put up a mother and child health centre. Not really a full-fledged hospital but somewhere they can get them information awareness on what is going on. Majorly we intend to have an ambulance service so that in case of emergency they can easily use it to move people around to the nearest hospital.

One of the beneficiaries Mrs. Grace Daso, 75, a retired teacher expressed appreciation for the initiative. “I thank the organisers for this kind gesture. I have been battling an eye defect and this is coming at the right time, she said, adding that, I am a lay reader in church and that was why I made sure I got here early enough because I am also officiating at the church program in honour of Doctor Akenroye’s late mother, she said.

In all, about a thousand participants were registered and attended to including those in need of surgeries who were operated upon at the outreach.

One of the patients treated was Success Akindoju, a two-year old boy who has a congenital bilateral corneal opacity, a condition of the eye that causes total blindness.

The remembrance events which was kick-started with a thanksgiving and launch of the Victoria Aderemelekun Akenroye Foundation on November 12 (including the launch of her biography titled The Ultimate Sacrifice at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (Grace Sanctuary) in Lagos, followed by the medical outreach on 17^th and 18^th  November, climaxed with a two day gospel crusade at Ilutitun.

For Akenroyes, it was an absolutely glorious way to remember a beloved mother and save thousands more at-risk women and fellow humans.

Breaking News: President Muhammad Buhari Returns

News reaching us now indicate that President Muhammad Buhari is back from London.

Our source noted that the President is likely to make speech later in the day to address Nigeria.

It will be noted that it was when the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye visited him in London that he appreciated him for his good works, prayers and Nigerians for their prayers as well.

Details later.

Pastor Adeboye Visits President Buhari in London

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Enoch Adejare Adeboye, has visited President Muhammadu Buhari in London.

Buhari confirmed the visit, with pictures, via his official Twitter handle, with a caption: “I thank Pastor Adeboye for visiting today, and for his prayers and good wishes. May God continue to bless him and his work.”

Adeboye becomes the second prominent religious leader to visit the President following the visit of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on August 5.

Buhari has been on medical vacation in London since May 7, 2017, and all recent callers at the Abuja House, where he is recuperating, say his recovery is going on smoothly.

However, Buhari himself said last week that there had been “tremendous improvement” in his health only that he hadn’t been given the go-ahead by his doctors.

Igbonla Boys: 'Lagos Must Do More to Protect Children'-- CEE-HOPE

The Centre for Children’s Health Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE), a child’s right and development Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) has reacted to the recent release of six school boys of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe.

In a statement issued in Lagos, CEE-HOPE’s Executive Director, Betty Abah, said it was a great relief that the boys (who were abducted from their school hostels) had been brought back after 65 tortuous days in kidnappers’ den. ‘We can only imagine the joy of family members whose loved ones had been held captive for over two months. We congratulate the authorities and agencies who worked assiduously for the release of these boys, most notably, the Federal Government, Ondo State Government and the Nigerian Police Force,’ said Abah.

The statement further asked the Lagos State Government to do more to ensure maximum protection for its school children as against the current state of affairs which it said has left children as easy preys and at the mercy of criminals. It asserted that the Igbonla case was  quite avoidable given that a clear three-day notice was issued to the school by the militants yet the abduction happened with apparent no resistance by any security operatives, not to mention that abduction also took place in the same school in October 2016. It called for the school authorities and security operatives in the area to be questioned as to what really transpired.

‘Children in Lagos State are currently endangered and the attitude of the state government hasn’t helped matters. It took 10 traumatic days for the government to address the parents of the boys and that was even after a protest to the government house in Alausa. And the Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, who by law is the Chief Security Officer of the state, would not talk to them. Even though the victims are vulnerable young persons, the state government gave the parents a cold shoulder saying it would not negotiate with criminals, and maintained a lukewarm attitude to their boys’ plights until the Federal Government’s intervention. They were also left to negotiate with the kidnappers, selling property and borrowing huge sums in the process. All these send a gravely wrong message to the rest of poor Lagosians in a progressively insecure atmosphere’, it added.

The statement also cited instances of ongoing rape, brutalization and multiple killings in the Ikorodu area of the state by the rabid Badoo cult, with most of the victims being women and girls; the recent rape to death of Obiamaka Ngozichukwu Orakwe, a 14 year old girl in Abule-Ado area of the state. It asked for stringent punishment for criminals to serve as deterrence.

‘The present government of Lagos State must run government with a more humane face, scale up its security apparatus and give the beleaguered population a sense of belonging and security. Again, on Igbonla, besides ensuring comprehensive medical and psychosocial treatment for the recently released boys, the state government must compensate the parents to show that government can have a human face and is not all about infrastructures,’ said Abah.

The statement further added that kidnappers, ritualists and criminal arrested must not only be given ‘media trials’ but be openly tried, sentenced and shamed as a way of rescuing the state from the current grip of insecurity.

'Bring Back Kidnapped Igbonla School Boys'

CEE-HOPE Tasks Lagos State Government.

More than 40 days after six students of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla in Epe area of Lagos were kidnapped by unknown gun men, they are yet to be rescued. A Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, the Centre for Children’s Health Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE) has urged the Lagos State Government to effect the release of the students as further delay would put the school boys’ lives at risk.

‘We are pained that more than 40 whole days after their kidnap, to the continued anguish of their parents and relatives and to the outrage of the world, the Lagos State Government has not succeeded in bringing the boys home,’ said CEE-HOPE’s Executive Director, Betty Abah. 

The students were kidnapped from their school premises on May 25. Upon the announcement by the Lagos State Government that it wouldn’t negotiate with the kidnappers, the parents, mostly fishermen, traders and pensioners, raised N2Million and then N6Million to effect the children’s release , but they (kidnappers) had remained adamant, demanding the sum of N100 Million. The latest incident happened despite a similar occurrence last year, and also following a letter to the school authorities notifying them of an impending attack. The kidnapped boys are Yusuf Farouk, Ramon Isiaka, Pelumi Philips, Peter Jonas, Adebanjo George and Judah Agbaosi.

About two weeks after the kidnap incident, parents and relatives of the kidnap victims marched on a protest to the Lagos State Government office in Alausa, protesting the blanket of silence from both the government and police on the abduction, saying there was no communication from either government or police as to the state of their children. Though some persons with alleged links to the kidnap were said to have been arrested shortly after, the boys are yet to be back.

‘This blanket of silence has, sadly, remained for the most part on this and other related issues of public interest. We are aggrieved because this is an abdication of the fundamental principle of our constitutional democracy which vests the ‘security and welfare of the people’ in the hands of the government. The slight and outright detachment with which issues concerning waterfront communities, street traders and other categories of the urban poor in Lagos are treated are the same attitude with which the Igbonla school boys’ case is being treated, and it is scandalous,’ added the statement. ‘Would it be too much if the state government and police come out with occasional updates on the matter, to re-assure the boys’ traumatised relatives and the anxious public at large?’ it further asks.

The statement also called on the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo who is a former Attorney-General of Lagos State, to wade into the matter so as to dispel the general notion that the Nigerian government does not take issues of child’s right, welfare and protection as priorities especially when those concern children of the haves-not. It also warned that the mistakes committed by the last administration on the Chibok schoolgirls abduction saga must not be repeated in that of the Igbonla schoolboys.

‘The Lagos State Government must do all it can to ensure the safe return of these boys. Each of the six boys, like every other child in Nigeria or in the world has a right to study in safety and pursue their dreams no matter the social-economic status of their parents. The Lagos State Government must accord them that right. This delay is dangerous. Lagos State must explore all channels to ensure their safe release. What is paramount and at stake now is the survival of these boys. Government shouldn’t show concern and timely commitment only when the rich and influential and their offspring are concerned. Lagos must secure all schools, end the air of insecurity in Ikorodu (currently under the siege of the Badoo cult) and other parts of the state. The government should explore intelligence gathering in their crime fighting, strengthen the laws on criminal acts such as kidnapping to rid the state of criminals and their menace.’

‘It is good to build a mega city, but first, Lagos must build a safe and mega populace, and ensure that children, either of the poor or rich, realise their mega dreams. This is not the case right now in Lagos,’ the statement concludes.