The Kogi State
government will donate N3 million for the operation to separate a conjoined
twins. Secretary to
the State Government (SSG) Mrs. Ayoade Folashade Arike, who spoke
yesterday,
noted that the six-month-old twins- Miracle and Testimony Ayeni, were joined at
the buttocks.
She said an
NGO, Linking Hands Foundation, drew the attention of the state to the parents’
predicament. The parents, she said, are from Odoere in Yagba West.
Her words: “We
received a call from an NGO, Linking Hands Foundation, that there is a
conjoined twins in Enugu State whose parents are from Yagba West in Kogi State.
We were told they needed government’s assistance because the twins needed to be
separated and the parents don’t have the means.
“I told her to
send me the brief about the children and she forwarded their medical reports to
me, after which I made a case for them before Governor Yahaya Bello and his
wife, Rashida. “I told the NGO
lady, Mrs. Efe Farinre, to send me the financial implications for their surgery
abroad and we discovered that it was enormous; but Mrs. Farinre contacted a
hospital in the US, if they could perform the surgery for free and the hospital
graciously agreed.
“We were now
looking at how they would go abroad and where to stay; we went back to the
governor’s wife for help and she made an application to that effect. Governor
Bello then approved the donation of N3 million for their traveling expense and
upkeep.”
She added that
an account has been opened in the names of the twins, where donations would be
made to, even as she noted that the hospital has offered free accommodation for
the period of the surgery. Arik Airline has equally obliged to transport the
twins and their parents free.
The SSG said
the twins, who are currently at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital
(LASUTH), would be flown abroad as soon as their traveling documents are processed.
Source: The Nation
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