Mortality rate: Jigawa distributes ambulances to 20 LGAs

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.