No fewer than five
Agatu indegens, taking refuge at Ugbokpo, Apa LGA of Benue State have been
confirmed dead.
Scores of other indigenes in the
camp, ranging from children, women and elders are also said to be suffering
from one ailment or another.
Addressing Journalists at the IDPs
camp, Ugbokpo on Wednesday, the Chairman of the camp committee, Rev. Fr. John
Attah said the dead, mostly adults died from various ailments which could be as
a result of fatigue or emotional instability while others complained of malaria
fever.
“Some of them spent over a week
inside the forest before they could trace their way into this place. So, many
of them died of fatigue and the children died of malnutrition”, Fr. Attah
added.
Moved by the rate of death and the
continuous plights of the Internally Displaced Persons, wife of former
President of the Senate, Barr. Mrs. Kate Mark has deployed a team of
professional medical practitioners to the camp to offer free medical services
to children, nursing mothers and pregnant women.
The team which arrived the Ugbokpo
IDPs camp on Wednesday has treated over 400 cases of malaria, cholera,
jaundice, malnutrition, typhoid and other ailments related to pregnancy.
The medical practitioners also went
to the camp with fully automated laboratory equipments for on the spot
diagnosis of ailments at window stage as well as offering drugs and
precautionary kits to the camp officials against further outbreak of common
sicknesses.
Barr. Mrs. Kate Mark also used the
forum to call on the state and federal governments to as a matter of urgency
put the insurgencies to permanent rest, to enable the victims return home for
the new farming season which had already begun.
Represented by Hon. Mrs. Ada Mark
Ogbole and Chief Adakole Elijah, Mrs. Mark bemoaned the sharp practices of some
individuals and government officials in diverting some relief materials meant
for the Agatu IDPs for any other purpose.
While charging the camp officials to
be more concerned about the health and welfare of the IDPs, Mrs. Mark also
called on the government and kind hearted individuals to come to the aide of
the victims to forestall further outbreak of ailments and its attendant death.
Senator Mark’s wife also advised the
medical sub committee at the camp to always refer complicated medical issues to
appropriate specialist hospitals to avoid what had happened in the past.
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