18th August, 2010
A member of the House of Representatives representing Somolu Federal Constituency, Mr. Oyewole Diya, has said that urgent medical measures must be taken to address eye problem as, according to him, many people are being afflicted by the illness.
According to Diya, eye defect and blindness were next to malaria, breast cancer, diabetes and hypertension in the list of killer diseases plaguing a reasonable size of the labour force and rendering them unproductive.
This, he said, made him to organise a free eye screening exercise where glasses and drugs were dispensed accordingly by a team of medical experts especially assembled for the exercise.
Speaking during the exercise which lasted three days and which saw over 1,500 persons, most especially the aged, treated for one eye defect or the other, Diya said many people in his constituency suffered from one eye defect or the other and he felt morally bound to assist them to solve their eye problems.
He charged the people of Somolu to be one another’s keepers by informing their neighbours, friends and family members in dire need of eye treatment and by encouraging them to visit the designated centre and be treated free of charge.
“Let them bring their fellow neighbours and the aged who are in need of eye care to the designated centre for treatment. It doesn’t cost anything other than making oneself available,†the lawmaker said, stressing that the exercise was the first of its kind in the area, while also disclosing that since former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu first introduced a programme called Jigi Bola in the state, the people of Somolu had not had access to free eye treatment.