By Muhammad Aliyu
Dutse
Set to to minimise cases of maternal, mortality and morbidity rates among pregnant women as well nursing mothers, the office of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, under its support programme in collaboration with Jigawa state government, have distributed cars to 20 local government areas of the state.
Speaking while handing over the keys to chairmen of the benefiting local government councils, the state deputy governor, Barrister Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia said though the programme was not new in the state , they found it expedient to revive.
He maintained that despite large of number of such cars allocated to all the local government areas, one on the roads were not up to six and directed the stat e Ministry of Women Affairs to ensure that the remaining vehicles were retrieved.
“These cars, which were purchased at the cost of N21million, will serve like ambulances , because their duty is not only limited to carrying women on labour or nursing mothers alone, but they will convey other patients with emergency cases to hospitals in order to save their lives’, Hassan stated .
The deputy governor disclosed that the vehicles would be attached with trackers so as to ascertain their movements and warned drivers to desist from misuse, saying that any driver found deviated from his official responsibilities, the tracker will expose him and would be penalised.
In her address, the state commissioner for Women Affairs Hajiya Ladi Ibrahim Dansure, stated that the vehicles were purchased purposely for the benefit of women who were in the remotest communities where they are not access to health facilities .
She urged pregnant women to imbibe the culture of visiting hospitals for ante natal care so as to reduce the rates of mortality, adding that the cars would also be used for referral in case of emergency and critical cases of women and others.