Smart Adeyemi launches free healthcare for 1,000 pregnant women

Sen. Smart Adeyemi has flagged off a special healthcare scheme under which 1,000 selected pregnant women will enjoy free ante-natal care from pregnancy till birth.

Speaking at the flag off ceremony on Tuesday in Lokoja, Adeyemi said that the initiative was to enable pregnant women to enjoy safe and quality healthcare during pregnancy.

According to him, the scheme entails paying for the costs of treatment, drugs, surgical operation where necessary, and other consumables for the benefitting pregnant women till birth.

Adeyemi, representing Kogi West Senatorial District, said the scheme was his own modest contribution towards reducing maternal and infant mortality rate in the state.

He said the scheme would cover the entire seven local government areas in the senatorial district with special attention to indigent pregnant women in rural areas.

Adeyemi commended Gov. Yahaya Bello over his rural healthcare programme for the indigent, saying that this new effort was to complement the efforts of the governor in the area of healthcare delivery.

The senator, who is spending his third term in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, promised to expand the number of beneficiaries, asking pregnant women in the district to come and register for the scheme.

He promised to float a welfare scheme for elderly people of 70 years and above from October this year and restore award of bursary and scholarships to indigent students in tertiary institutions.

Adeyemi seized the opportunity to appeal to party members who are aggrieved over the just concluded ward congresses of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to bury the hatchet.

The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mrs Folashade Ayoade, in her speech, said pregnant women should not see the scheme as an opportunity to produce the number of children that they cannot cater for.

She advised the pregnant women to embrace family planning and embrace child spacing to enjoy good quality health later in life.

The SSG commended Adeyemi for the initiative, urging other lawmakers from the state to emulate the gesture.

Present at the event were the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Sala Haruna, Dr Abubakar Yakubu, Director -General, Kogi State Primary Healthcare Agency and Dr Oyeyemi Yewande, Chairman, Kogi State Health Insurance Agency, among others.