Kasim Sumaina in Abuja
The National Association of Seadogs (NAS), Pyrates Confraternity, has offered a free medical service to residents of Dakibiyu community, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to reduce illnesses.
The free medical services, NAS said, was part of its quarterly medical mission / NAS Citizen’s Summit, with theme, ‘Rebuilding Nigeria.’
It revealed that the objective of the town hall meeting was to facilitate a broad-based discourse on the plethora of socioeconomic and political challenges militating against optimising the values of citizenship and patriotism for national development and cohesion.
Speaking to newsmen after the flag-off of the programme, NAS First Mate, Chiemeka Ozumba, who represented the association’s National Capone, Mr Kwabhunde Gbahabo, noted that the gesture was part of the mission of the association to see that citizens’ lives were better.
According to him: “The Pyrates community has a philosophy which says that, wherever you are in the community, you must find a way to make a difference by giving a helping hand, this is for our society to be better.
“It is not about what we expect from the government, but it is about what we can do for ourselves as a country and one of these is the medical mission of the association.”
He stated that the association has been doing this for the past years with the help of the medical doctors and nurses present in the association.
“This association was prompted with the feelings that there was no presence of government in Dakibiyu community and that was why the association chooses the community for the 2019 quarterly medical mission,” he added.
The NAS First Mate however called on the government to show its presence in the community by erecting a befitting medical facility.
Similarly, the Head, Medical Team, NAS, Mr Joseph Oteri, stated that the team has been able to screen a lot of people who have been diagnosed with malaria parasite and were given drugs.
According to Oteri, the medical team were giving out the drugs based on the complaint of the individuasl who are present at the medical outreach.
He said that the presence of the FCT Primary Healthcare Development Agency at the ongoing medical outreach would facilitate the coming of the health care centre to the community.
He said: “We have over 10 doctors here right now, we have pharmacists, the nurses and the laboratory and the crowd control personnel. The medical care attention have cost the association over a million.”
The Coordinator, Vaccine Logistics, FCT Primary Health Care Board, Mr Okoli Nicholas, who was at the event to represent the board secretary said that the board was collaborating with NAS to give the medical support.
He added that the board decided to support the association with equipment and manpower to ensure that the medical outreach was a successful one adding that there were various medical personnel to ensure the success of the programme. resolved by the use of this law.
