NAF@60: Sogunle community ignores rain, attend medical outreach

 NAF@60: Sogunle community ignores rain, attend medical outreach 

Lagos, May 17, 2024

 Sogunle community, Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Area (LGA), Lagos on Thursday came out en masse for a free medical outreach organised by the Logistics Command, Nigerian Air Force (NAF) in spite of the rains.

The Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Logistics Command, NAF, Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Yaro Abdullahi said that the medical outreach was in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the NAF which was established in 1964.

According to Abdullahi, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar directed that the best way to celebrate NAF's Diamond Jubilee was to conduct a free medical outreach in host communities.

"Health is important and mandatory to all, so we are organising a free medical outreach for our host community as a way of saying thank you for their cordial relationship over the years.

"We have been working together in unity and this has helped us in achieving our constitutional mandate given to us by the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria," he said.

The AOC said that the command had a hospital which was opened to everyone stating that 60 percent of the patients that made use of the facility were usually from the host community.

"As a result of this, the Headquarters, NAF is building a bigger hospital within the base to accommodate more people.

"The hospital we presently have has been existing since the 70's and both the community and command has grown, so a bigger hospital is being built to accommodate these changes.

"So, it's not just about them taking advantage of the free medical outreach but they can also reach out into our base for more medical attention," he said.

Abdullahi said that he was impressed by the turn out of people for the outreach in spite of the rains which did not deter them from coming out to participate in the healthcare programme.

"The turn out has been encouraging and we want to continue to tell the host community that we are here for them.

"We want to ensure that the health of the people we live with is in top notch because we don't live in isolation of one another.

"We marry from our host communities, we live with them, we go to school with them so the whole idea is for us to live together in a healthy environment," the AOC said.

The Chief of Staff, Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Area, Mr Leke Banjoko who represented the LGA's Chairman, Mr Kehinde Oloyede thanked the NAF for the medical outreach.

"The community is grateful to the NAF for the medical outreach because this will go a long way in helping to attend to various health issues experienced in the community," Banjoko said.

The Baale (traditional ruler) of Sogunle, High Chief Rafui Ajisegiri said that the hospital in the base had contributed significantly to the improvement of his health and he thanked the NAF for this.

Mr Samson Agbetoye, a beneficiary of the outreach said that NAF had been carrying out free medical outreach every year in the community.

"This time around, the medical outreach is in a larger form and we appreciate them for their services. We only hope that they can do it more frequently every year," Agbetoye said.

Mr Peter Nnadi, one of the community members thanked NAF because they had been very significant with assisting in the development of the community and not only in the area of health.

"They have helped our children to join the NAF and we even have community members working in the hospital as staffs. They also give out jobs to our artisans.

"These are long lasting impacts they are making in the land of the people in this community.

"I thank the NAF for their time and effort for this. As they celebrate their diamond jubilee, I pray for more improvement across all their commands," Nnadi said.

Also, Mrs Kafayat Yusuf, a beneficiary of the outreach said that she was grateful because two of her kids where showing symptoms of malaria and they have been treated for it.

"I was told to bring them to hospital in the base for further tests and I was also given a recommended eye glass to help correct my eye sight problem," she said.