NAF Offers Medical Services to Bakassi IDPs
BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has extended its medical outreach programme to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the Bakassi Peninsula.
The 4-day medical outreach, designed to address the healthcare needs of the displaced Nigerians, is targeted at over 4,000 returnees located at the Ikot-Effiom and Ekpri-Obutong IDPs camps in Bakassi Local Government Area of Cross-River State.
Moved by the plights of the IDPs, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar directed the NAF Medical Services to conduct a medical outreach in the two camps especially for women and children in order to attend to their healthcare needs.
The first phase of the outreach programme, which was conducted between August 8 and 9, 2017, at the Ikot-Effiom, witnessed the provision of healthcare services to about 1,500 IDPs in the camp in addition to indigenes of the host community who trooped out in large numbers to benefit from the NAF humanitarian services.
A statement issued by the Director of Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya, said the people were offered a wide range of free medical tests and treatment for malaria and blood pressure in addition to fasting, random sugar level and eye tests.
Other medical checks carried out on the IDPs, according to Air Commodore Adesanya, included those for various diseases and infections adding that treatment and drugs were administered freely to the patients.
The NAF spokesman also said that treated mosquito nets were distributed to women and children, adding that those with complicated medical cases were referred to the NAF medical facilities in Calabar for secondary healthcare management.
In a related development, the NAF 305 Special Mobility Group in Calabar is now involved in the Joint Internal Security Operations in Cross-River State, codenamed “Operation Skolombo” with a mandate to checkmate criminality, including the protection of the IDPs.
Adesanya said the NAF has been in the forefront of providing free medical care for IDPs and host communities of NAF Units across the nation as part of its corporate social responsibilities, notably in the North-east, South-west, South-east and now the South-south.
