The Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, has disclosed that the rising and recurrent cases of untimely deaths among Nigerians propelled him to sponsor free medical intervention for 16,000 residents of Ekiti Central Senatorial District of Ekiti State.
Bamidele, who represents Ekiti Central Senatorial District in the Senate, said he was dazed by the increasing level of how Nigerians often perceived as hale and hearty, but suffering underlying medical conditions, often slumped and died due to poor access to medical treatments.
The Senate Leader said this in Ado Ekiti, on Thursday, while rounding off the second phase of his Free Medical Outreach across the five local governments in Ekiti Central Senatorial District, where 9,400 people benefited .
It will be recalled that an aggregate of 6,600 residents of the district, had earlier benefited from the first phase of the programme undertaken in partnership with the Industrial Arbitration Panel, thereby increasing the tally of beneficiaries to 16,000.
Medical experts despatched for the programme that took place in all notable towns in the district, treated the beneficiaries for ailments like: hepatitis, hypertension, hernia, visual problem, diabetes, hernia, and free eye glasses for those suffering all manners of visual impairments.
Bamidele was represented at the closure of the programme held at the palace of Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe, by his Senior Legislative Assistant, Hon. Bunmi Oguntuase.
Addressing the beneficiaries, Bamidele, promised that the programme is going to be continuous to provide safety nets for some of his poor constituents.
“What we are doing is to give succour to those being afflicted by diseases and they don’t have the means to seek medical treatments. Let me advise our governors to invest more in the primary healthcare sector that remains the closest to the poor masses.
” Going by what some of the beneficiaries said, most of them had been experiencing the sicknesses for years, but today, they have been treated.
“Those with chronic health issues had been referred to better hospitals and Senator Bamidele is ready to foot the bills to give our people the dividends of democracy they deserve”, the Senate Leader said.
The Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe, commended Senator Bamidele for the programme, saying what he achieved for Ekiti further confirmed that having a ranking federal lawmaker can be beneficial to the state.
Oba Adejugbe saluted the robust working partnership between Governor Biodun Oyebanji and Senator Bamidele, saying this has helped in giving the state a facelift in all spheres of the economy, especially in human capital development as a pillar of this administration.
The monarch stated that through Senator Bamidele’s unflagging commitment, the Ekiti Central Senatorial District had benefited road infrastructures , healthcare delivery, scholarship programmes, bursary awards to students and building of hostels for the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, to give students affordable accommodation.
Speaking with newsmen, some of the beneficiaries, appreciated the Senator for his progressive and welfarist politics geared toward offering the poor masses medical relief.
They described Senator Bamidele as a true representative of the people, who has neither disappointed nor dash the people’s hopes in his service to them as a ranking member of the National Assembly.