By Ijeoma Nwankpa, Abuja.
The management of 44 Nigerian Army Reference hospital, Kaduna says all the victims of the recent train attack in Kaduna to brought to them from the scene from the scene of the attack are all stable condition.
The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Colonel Stephen Onochukwu, disclosed this on Wednesday when he received the Minister of Transportation,Mr Rotimi Amaechi, who was on a visit to the victims.
The CMD said:” ‘We had 25 of them that were admitted. We discharged some of them that are stable but we are still following them up.
” Currently, we have seven of them still left in the hospital. We deployed our contingency resources to manage the situation and there are no challenges.”
“There is none of the cases that is beyond us because we also have collaboration with the teaching hospitals.So far, the expertise we do not have, we borrow the experts to manage the patients.
‘However, the Kaduna state Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has called for the establishment of military bases between Katari and Rijana areas to forestall future occurrence.”
Responds, Amaechi commended the CMD and staff of the hospital for their prompt treatment and attention to the victims of Abuja- Kaduna train attack.
”We are grateful to the Army. The CMD and I have been talking. The Army hasn’t charged a dime on any patient. And they have given the maximum medical care you can give to any patient.
“They treated the patients with bomb wounds and the lady with gun wounds in her heart, they are bringing in specialist, a cardiologist, to attend to her.
“They have just seven patients left, the rest have been discharged.
The Minister said Federal government would liaise with the hospital to see how much money to contribute to the victim’s medical bills.
This he said became necessary, noting that the drugs required for the victims were not being manufacturedin Nigeria, adding that the experts brought from outside the hospital do not work for the Nigerian Army, in which they would have to be paid.
” I will speak with the President, he is already giving directives. I’m sure by the time we finish the repair of the rail tracks, we would have got approval for the security equipment and would possibly have been installed.
“But even if it is not installed yet, we have spoken with the management of the Nigerian Air force to escort the trains. They were previously escorting the trains but recently, the weather has been very bad and visibility dropped to below 500 meters, so they couldn’t fly.
“This is why the attack was successful, but they have resumed flying and will escort the train when we resume,”he said.
Amaechi said the President had approved that people should be employed to be working on the rail tracks for the next six to seven months until the equipment is installed, adding that plans were on to employ villagers on the corridor to report any suspicious movements to the authorities.
The Minister promised that rail services would soon be back with the immediate commencement of work on the less than 2 kilometers rail tracks damaged, adding the military had promised to provide security as they work.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.