By Elohor Igbru
For three days, the Nigerian Air Force ( NAF) will provide free medical services for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in Faskari Local Government Area of Kastina state.
The NAF has been key in tackling the myriad of insecurity challenges in Nigeria from Biko Haram insurgency in the Northeast of the country to armed banditry and herdsmen/farmers crisis in the northwest and central.
Aside from providing several platforms in strategic locations for air interdiction and surveillance, the NAF has also deployed special forces to assist the army on the ground.
The medical outreach in Faskari is however not the first in a fortnight, the NAF had a few days earlier conducted similar excercise in Sabon Birni , Sokoto state.
According to NAF spokeperson, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, who is the Director Public Relations and information(DOPRI), the medical outreach is part of the NAF’s non-kinetic, civil-military relations efforts aimed at providing succour to all those who had been displaced from their communities due to recent attacks by armed bandits.
The three-day free healthcare services would also be accompanied by the distribution of palliatives such as blankets, toiletries, footwear, drinking water as well as food items and condiments, amongst others, to the IDPs.
Daramola said the outreach would include free consultations, health education, immunization and de-worming of children, distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, dental services as well as visual acuity checks and provision of prescription eye glasses.
The county Director of Primary Health, Hajiya Rabi Abu Safiyanu, who represented the county leadership said NAF’s intervention was timely. She believed it would go a long way in alleviating the medical challenges of the IDPs.
“We are very happy and grateful to the Nigerian Government and the NAF for the timely intervention,” she said.
She also urged the IDPs to avail themselves of the opportunity by coming out in their large numbers to access the free healthcare services being provided by the NAF for the three-day period.
Speaking for the NAF, Director of Public Health and Humanitarian Services who is also the Leader of the NAF Medical Team, Group Captain Ali Tanko, disclosed that they were in Faskari on the directive of the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar to attend to the immediate medical needs of the IDPs in the community.
He noted that the medical outreach would run for three days during which free healthcare services would be rendered to the people to further enhance civil military relations.
