.Says seven including two traditional heads arrested over Igueben train kidnap
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Gives ultimatum on use of sound systems in public
By Gabriel Enogholease and Ozioruva Aliu
BENIN CITY – THE Edo State government late Wednesday cried of neglect by the federal government on the recent outbreak of Lassa fever prevalent in about three local government areas and has therefore appealed to international donor agencies and groups to come to its aid.
Addressing a press conference after the first weekly State Executive Council Meeting of the year, the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare flanked by the Special Adviser to Governor Obaseki on Media Projects, Crusoe Osagie also said the two kidnapped victims still with kidnappers in the Igueben train station attack that happened two weeks ago have been rescued revealing that seven people have been arrested in connection with the incident including two village chiefs.
Nehikhare also announced a deadline for all those involved in sound making activities especially those closed to schools and residential areas to install sound proof systems in their facilities.
He said “The state government has tried everything within its powers to check this Lasser fever outbreak. We have reached out to the federal government but to all intents and purposes, the federal government has abandoned the Edo state government and its people in this issue. As of today, we have over 50 people infected with this disease in Edo and we have a five percent case fertility rate which is very high even compared to COVID-19.
“With all please and entreaties to the federal government in this challenging issue, they apparently just fell on deaf ears and this particularly is disheartening especially as the current Minister of Health is from Edo state.
“Haven hit a brick wall, we are constrained to reach out to international intervention agencies such as the WHO, UNICEF and any other international organization that have the mandate to intervene in infectious diseases outbreak.
“As a government, we have written several letters to the Ministry of Health to the Centre for Disease Control, to all the people involved in health issues to come and intervene and join the state to fight this outbreak but unfortunately they have abandoned us.
“We want the international agencies to intervene quickly before the situation gets worse. We have reached out to some of these agencies and we thank them for the efforts they are providing right now.
On the train attack saga in Igueben, Igueben said “We are pleased to announce that the last two victims have been rescued and seven suspects are in custody including two village chiefs. We thank the press for the support they have given in the last few weeks.”
For the anti-sound proof issue, he said “Businesses that generate sound near schools like Churches, mosques, night clubs, hotels, we have a lot of them making noise and disturbing the areas.
“In October last year, we called most of these people, the proprietors, to a meeting where we told them that they need to provide sound proofing so that their sounds will be kept within their premises and will not be a nuisance to other users of the environment. In January this year, we have now issued a letter detailing the designs and the kind of sound proofing they need to provide and we have given the proprietors of these businesses till March 31st for them to provide these sound proofing to help us manage sound in Edo state. We want to live in a sane society where our children are allowed to study in schools, where our parents can have a good night rest after work where our citizens do not have to go through a situation where night clubs bare their music as late as 2 am in residential areas, we want to have a society where well rested people are the most productive people.”
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