Abia Government To Clear Medical Bills Of Recent Accident Victims In Aba, Sympathizes With Victims
Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti says his administration has put in place adequate measures to help promote the safety of the public and road users across the state.
Governor Otti who stated this when he visited hospitals in Aba where victims of Tuesdays accident involving a heavy duty truck and some commercial and private vehicles along the Waterside Bridge in Ogbor Hill were receiving treatment, described the incident as unfortunate and shocking.
The Governor represented by his Chief of Staff, Pastor Caleb Ajagba said investigations are ongoing to ascertain the remote cause of the accident at the Waterside Bridge axis, adding that the state government has henceforth restricted the movement of heavy duty trucks to ply only at night as part of measures to forestall future reoccurrence of such ugly incident.
The State Chief Executive disclosed that they came to identify and reach out to the victims and their families, assuring that the state government would take care of their medical bills as well as ensure they get the best in terms of medical care.
He promised that the State Government would stand by the victims and their families during these difficult times and would do everything within its powers to lessen the burden on all affected by the regrettable tragedy.
“What happened is quite unfortunate, necessary investigations will be carried out to find out both the immediate and remote cause of the accident,”
“Others that have injuries or that require surgery would be taken care of. So far, it’s about 11 of them. This is a very caring government. And these are some of the emergencies that they never themselves prepared for.”
“So it would not be appropriate to allow them to go through this pain and also the pain of looking for money to pay hospital bills.”
“Being a very caring government, this government will take care of the medical bills and we have communicated that to all the hospitals and Chief Medical Directors where we visited” he said.
In their responses, the Medical Directors of some of the hospitals visited including Prof. John Chikezie of the Abia State University Teaching Hospital Aba, Dr. Patrick Okolo of New Era Hospital, Dr. Emenike Chidi of Impact Hospital among others appreciated the State Government for coming to the rescue of the accident victims and assured that they were doing all to ensure quick recovery of the patients.
They disclosed that the victims conditions are stable and expressed the hope that they would fully recover and be discharged soon.
The hospitals visited includes; New Era Hospital, Impact Hospital, NISSI Hospital, Blessed Haven Hospital, GMP, Seventh Day Adventist Hospital and Abia State University Teaching Hospital all in Aba where the details of the 11 accident victims were documented for proper follow up by the state government.
Our correspondent reports that the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communication, Mr Dodoh Okafor among other top government officials accompanied the Governor’s representative on the visits.