Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has promised that the State Government will offset the medical bills of the victims of a truck accident in Aba.
Governor Otti made the disclosure to newsmen on Wednesday through his Chief of Staff, Dr. Caleb Ajagba.
He spoke after visiting the accident victims, who were admitted to different hospitals in Aba for medical treatment.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the accident, which involved a truck carrying a 40-feet container, an SUV and a tricycle, occurred on Tuesday morning at the Ogbor Hill area of the commercial city.
Governor Otti said the government holds the sanctity of life strongly and would ensure that the victims received the best medical treatment.
He said: “This incident is an emergency, which the victims never prepared for, and it will not be appropriate to allow them to go through this level of pain and the pain of looking for money to pay their medical bills.
“This government will take care of their medical bills and we have indicated to all the hospitals and their Medical Directors that they do not need to bother the victims with the medical bills.
“The government will take care of them.”
Otti further said that extensive and thorough investigation would be carried out to ascertain the immediate and remote cause of the accident to guide the government’s efforts to prevent future occurrence.
He said that the government had put in place an immediate measure for heavy duty trucks to ply the roads within the city at night to check the occurrence of automobile crashes.
Otti also said that a lot of measures would be implemented, following the outcome of the investigation.
He said that there were 11 victims with various stages of bruises and injuries, with one deceased, who could not be saved because of the heavy impact of the accident.
He described the incident as unfortunate but thanked God that the survivors were responding to treatment.
He expressed the hope that they would be discharged soon.
He also promised that efforts were being made to rehabilitate deplorable roads in the city for improved vehicular movement.
Responding, the Medical Directors of some of the hospitals visited, including Prof. John Chikezie of the state University Teaching Hospital, Aba; Dr. Patrick Okolo of New Era Hospital; and Dr Emenike Chidi of the Impact Hospital, thanked the government for promising to assist the victims.
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They described the condition of the victims as stable.
They also said that the victims were being given the best medicare and assured the governor that they would do their best to ensure that they would be nursed back to good health.
Furthermore, they expressed the hope that in no distant time the victims would fully recover and be discharged.
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