By Omotayo Rasaq
Comrade Abdulrasheed Akogun in conjunction with 3 other friends has donated solar street lights worth N500,000 to the Government owned Specialist Hospital, Oke-Ode, Ifelodun local government area of the State.
Speaking on the motive for the donation, Akogun, the media professional turned politician said he and other indigene of the town sees the gesture as their own way of contribution to the development of the town.
According to him “A little over a month ago, I saw a distress post on an Oke-Ode youth WhatsApp platform which announced a robbery incident in one of the filling stations in the community, the release further stated that on rushing the injured victim to the Oke-Ode Specialist Hospital there was nobody to attend to them.
“I was alarmed, I made contacts in the town and government circles and discovered that the entire Hospital premises is poorly lighted, thus attending to patients at night is often problematic among several other challenges, I was confronted with, all of which are militating against the optimal functioning of the facility which serves no fewer than 70 communities.
“In other to support government’s efforts, myself, Olukose Azeez, Tunde Ojulari and Olukotun Waheed all indigenes of Oke-Ode contributed to solve the street lighting of the Hospital.
“The Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State Governor, Rafiu Ajakaye also supported and played tremendous roles towards the actualisation of this donation.
“We intend to get more likeminds towards ensuring we renovate and support the Hospital to put to use more wards, while we’ll engage and lobby the government to assist with more human resources towards restoring the lost glory of the Health facility and also reduce the workload of the overstretched staff” he added.
Receiving the street lights on behalf of the Hospital, the Chief Medical Director, who incidentally is the only remaining Doctor in the whole facility, Dr. Samuel Niyi Aliu said “I on behalf of the Hospital extend our profound gratitude to you and your friends for this lifesaving donation, it’s a huge relief.
“I hope other people can take a cue from your laudable gesture to also offer an hand of support to us here, so we’ll be able to work more optimally.
“The era of abandoning government facilities for government alone to maintain is gone, especially with the economic realities of the Country today, that’s why communal efforts and philanthropic gestures can’t be relegated towards guaranteeing the continuous derivation of benefit from government interventions and facilities” he stressed.
