Firm brings medical lifeline to Ogun communities

By Charles Adegbite

Everest Metal Nigeria Ltd, a firm in Ogun State, recently organised a free medical programme for residents of Oruku and Ipetoro communities around Ogijo in Sagamu Local Government Area of the state.

The medical personnel who conducted the various tests and dispensed drugs to the patients in attendance, disclosed that some of the residents might just have died suddenly or become paralysed if they did not attend the programme. He said some of the patients were suffering from life-threatening diseases like diabetes, hypertension and hepatitis.

The medical programme included free medical tests for blood pressure levels, malaria, HIV, hepatitis and blood sugar. Drugs were given to patients as needed.

According to them, some were diagnosed with their sugar levels being as high as 400mg/dL. This indicated the patients were suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis. 

Their failure to attend hospitals in Ikorodu to seek serious medical attention when they began to notice some symptoms was attributed to their poor financial condition. The communities also lack primary health centres, the patients claimed.

Someone with viral hepatitis was also discovered among the patients when diagnosed. There were other patients whose blood pressures were quite high, which, according to the medical personnel, indicated hypertensive crisis.

Speaking on behalf of the Managing Director of the company, Mr Vikas Das Chandra, the Human Resources Manager, Prince Enoch Adebayo Akinde, noted that the purpose of the programme were “to save lives and bring medical succour to the residents. The whole CSR projects we have been carrying out since 2019 were humanitarian services.

“This was the third time. The numerous effects of the COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t allow us to do it in 2020. But we did it in 2021. This one is for the 2022. It means we are still going to do the 2023 edition later this year,” he added.

The spokesperson for the two communities, Pastor Noel Rufus described the programme as a timely intervention. “We are happy for this. You can see that chairmen of 18 Community Development Associations (CDAs) in the two communities were in attendance, to benefit from the programme. Even the Baales, traditional rulers, of the two communities were in attendance to partake in it,” he said.

Rufus said the programme was part of the Corporate Social Responsibilities(CSR) services the company has been rendering the host communities annually, since they jointly signed the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, in 2019 for mutual coexistence .

He noted that Everest Metal had donated transformer, electric poles and cables for the communities in 2019, adding that the communities which had been in darkness for years got access to electricity supply.

He added that the company also constructed roads (private drive pathways) for them which enabled the communities to be motorable. 

The community head of Ipetoro, Chief Mojeed Olanipekun and that of Oruku, Baale Olabinjo Kamoru, who also benefited from the medical services, noted that if other companies in the communities could emulate Everest Metal Nigeria Ltd, their impacts would be felt as well.

According to them, the communities used to be villages before. The great influx of people from Lagos and Ogun cities, like Ikorodu and Ogijo towns, who came to buy land and build houses and companies there, had led to their rapid development. 

People from the community noted that the absence of basic social amenities, coupled with environmental pollution from companies located in the area, have subjected the people to great hardship. They commended the company for providing some of the basic social amenities for the two fast growing neighbouring towns.

Area chairman of Oruku/Ita Sanni Community Development Associations, Pastor Samuel Oluwakayode Ayodele, said he also enjoyed the medical service and was given certain drugs he has been looking for, to cure an illness in his body. He expressed appreciation for the CSR project and acknowledged the contributions of Pastor Rufus for engaging the company in good negotiations with the residents and ensuring that both the host communities and the company have mutual relationship. 

Pastor Rufus, who spoke for the communities, said it was the failure of government to provide the needed social amenities that led to their meetings with the management of the Everest Metal Nigeria Ltd in 2018 on the need for the organisation to carry out her CSR. 

“And in 2019 we signed the MoU and they started to do it. We are grateful for that. Many vulnerable and other residents were attended to. They have done credibly well. When we talk about the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreement they signed with us. And in terms of pollution control, they have achieved over 85 per cent,” he explained.