Since the horrendous,tragic blast of 16/01/23, the Ministry of Women Affairs & Social Inclusion, has been working tirelessly to complement the efforts of His Excellency GSM,His Excellency the Deputy Governor Barr Bayo Lawal,the Commissioner for Health,the state security architecture led by Compol Owoseeni, Prof Alonge and other requisite MDAs.
The Ministry has been working around the clock to bring some measure of succour and relief to victims of the dastardly act and their families who have been directly negatively impacted by this harrowing happenstance.
Through the night till close to midnight before the arrival of His Excellency GSM,the Commissioner,her team from the Ministry,the Local Government Chairman and Assistant Secretary Ibadan North Local Govt ; Hon Waheed Akanbi and Hon Nojimdeen Adewale Shodeinde( aka Flow) were at ground Zero,the epicentre of the explosive incident together with His Excellency the Deputy Governor of the state and the Honourable Commissioner for Health.
Early the next morning a strategy session was held with the HC Health where the Commissioner for Women Affairs suggested that the rescue,health maintenance and Psychosocial efforts be streamlined to just 4 hospitals for ease of supervision & administration.
The 4 hospitals agreed on are: University College Hospital UCH, Redeemer’s Hospital beside Ace Mall,Bethel Hospital at Coca Cola and Tristate hospital beside Molly Hospital.
The Honourable Commissioner despatched multiple teams of Social Workers from the Ministry of Women Affairs & Social Inclusion to all 4 hospitals where they have been interphasing with,gathering requisite information from and rendering Psychosocial Support to the victims on admission and their families present.
The Commissioner was able to secure the embedment of Social Workers from the Ministry of Women Affairs onto a Toll Free line created for Oyo State through contacts both at the telecoms giant MTN and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The embedment of the ministry officials onto the network is to facilitate a platform through which families and loved ones of the victims of the blast both at home and in the diaspora can access Online Real Time information about the whereabouts,location and general condition of their loved ones who were victims of the blast.
Reports and alerts about incidences of Child Abuse , Sexual or Gender Based Violence( SGBV) can also be made directly to the Ministry through this Toll Free line.
Callers will receive timely and professional attention from Social Workers,Officers of the ministry and members of the SGBV Rapid Response Team who have been embedded onto this cellular network.
The number of this Toll Free Line is 122 and all calls to this line are at no cost to the call initiators.
The Ministry of Women Affairs & Social Inclusion also ensured that feeding arrangements were made for the various security teams ( Army,Air force,Bomb Disposal unit, Amotekun, Police, NSCDS, Red Cross and all other security aparatus )at work at ground Zero,the situation room,other locations were security teams from Amotekun were securing and other ancillary teams collaborating on the rescue efforts.
The Honourable Commissioner and her team were also on ground throughout the day at all the 4 designated hospitals to provide succour,share words of encouragement with,bring hope to and to deliver food to the victims and their families.
The CMD UCH,Prof Otegbayo and indeed the entire UCH management team of the 4 hospitals were on ground to welcome and accompany the Commissioner & her team on the visitation rounds to all the victims of the blast in the 4 hospitals.
