Abiodun: I met five functional ambulances when I assumed office

Laide Raheem, Abeokuta

Abiodun, who declared that his administration places high premium and value on the Health and Emergency Response as an important sector in the state, said 12 additional ambulances had since been bought by his government.

According to him, his administration was aiming at making at least an ambulance available in each of the 26 state constituencies.

The governor who made this known  when he received the Governing Board of the National Youth Service Scheme Governing Board(NYSC), led by its chairman, Ambassador Fatima Balla Abubakar in his Oke Mosan, Abeokuta office, said plans were also under way to grow the number of ambulances in the state to over thirty from the initial five he met on ground.

Abiodun added that the state government recently launched its 24 hours ambulance response service across the state, noting the service would avail the people of the state the opportunity to call the emergency number and get emergency responses on time.

“The issue of Health and Emergency Response is an important sector to us. When this administration came into office, I think we had about five ambulances, today, we have seventeen ambulances, but we are not even their yet. I demanded the commitment of a few of our public private sector partners and I believe that between now and the next thirty days, we should have about thirty ambulances in the state.

“Our plan is to ensure that each state constituency has one ambulance and we have twenty-six of such state constituency and then we now have others that will be servicing tertiary hospitals. We have just launched our 24 hours ambulance response service across the state, at any point in time, you can call our emergency number and you get our emergency response,” the governor stated.

Abiodun, while commending the scheme for ensuring national cohesion and for exposing youths in the country to the diversity of the country, noted that the scheme had helped students in interacting with their fellow students from other parts of the country.

He said that his administration would continue to support the scheme as well as ensure that the welfare of the corps members is looked into in the state, adding he had directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the state to accommodate every corps member posted to their agencies..

“This scheme is here to ensuring national cohesion, this is a very good scheme that exposes our children to the diversity of this nation and it has helped them in interacting with their fellow students from other parts of the country.

“We will continue to ensure that we are very supportive, particularly as regards to the welfare of these students and the living conditions of the corps members, we believe that this in itself is in line with our mantra of building the future of our state together and by extension building the future of this country together.

“I have directed our MDAs to ensure that at any point in time when corps members are posted to them, they should accept and not reject them,” he said.

Abiodun who expressed the readiness of his administration to support the State Coordinating Office of the National Youth Service Corps in its quest to venture into agriculture, added that his administration would support them with lands, as well as ensure that more agricpreneurs are are raised through the agric project.

Earlier in her remarks,the chairman, Governing Board of the  National Youth Service Scheme, Ambassador Fatima Balla Abubakar, commended the Ogun State Government for making the NYSC Orientation Camp in the state the best in the country.

 She noted that since it came on board, Dapo Abiodun-led administration had shown hundred percent commitment towards the success of the scheme in the state through the restoration of electricity to the NYSC State Secretariat after years of neglect, as well as the constant rehabilitation of the camp.