Pregnant women staged a protest Thursday morning at the Ondo State Specialist Hospital, Akure.
The expectant mothers in various stages of pregnancies said the protest was against what they described as “outrageous money” being charged for their antenatal care by the state government.
They called on Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to “urgently reverse the N25,000 they are expected to pay for ‘normal’ delivery, and the N50,000 payable for Cesarean Section, which was free under Akeredolu’s predecessor’s Abiye Programme.
The women, numbering about one hundred, were gathered at the ante-natal section of the hospital.
They alleged that they were made to pay various sums, ranging from N500 to N4,000 for various reasons in the course of their ante-natal, alleging that the state hospital workers claimed to be acting on “orders from above.”
Under the Olusegun Mimiko administration’s Abiye Programme, which earned the commendation of the World Health Organisation, pregnant women and under-five children enjoyed free medical services.
It maybe recalled that wife of Ondo State Governor, Mrs. Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, once decried the rate at which pregnant women and children die in the state.
Details later…
Source: Punch
