THE Red Cross Nigeria Plateau State branch has lamented the shortage of blood in hospitals where victims of the Yelwa-Zangam crisis were receiving treatment and called on spirited members of the public and good Samaritans to donate blood to the victims.
It will be recalled that Fulani militia attacked the community on Tuesday to the early hours of Wednesday during which over 36 people were killed and several others sustained injuries, now receiving treatment in various hospitals within Jos, the state capital. Speaking with Nigerian Tribune, the branch Secretary of the Red Cross in the state, Mr Yohana Pam, said most of the victims were in Our Lady of Apostle Hospital and Bingham University Teaching Hospital, adding that in the course of the Red Cross routine check, it was discovered that the hospitals were short of blood for the patients who were in need of blood to survive.
“This was discovered in the course of our routine checks that both Our Lady of Apostle Hospital and Bingham Teaching Hospital was short of blood and that is why we are appealing to people to come out and donate blood to safe the lives of victims of the attack receiving treatment in the hospitals”
He added that the organisation will commence a programme on Monday to enable people of the state to donate blood to the National Blood Transition Centre at the Plateau State Specialist Hospital to meet the need of the victims and other people in dire need of blood. In a similar development, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Plateau State has expressed concern over the increasing number of casualties at various hospital emergency wards and mortuaries within Jos, the state capital.
The NMA, in a statement signed by its state chairman, Dr Innocent Emmanuel and secretary, Dr Bapigaan William respectively, strongly condemned the recent crisis in the state, adding that a situation where people face the reality of being attacked, injured and or murdered in cold blood while their homes, farmlands and means of livelihoods are destroyed with no end in sight to these hostilities, was unacceptable.
The statement read in part: “The innocent, harmless, accommodating and committed citizens of Plateau State have continued to live under the perennial unsavoury reality of perpetual terrorism manifesting as kidnappings for ransom, rape, maiming and killings as well as threats of total annihilation. Daily, people are kidnapped from their houses and living with the fear that the same will happen the next day elsewhere or in their neighbourhood unabatedly, with huge sums paid as ransom.
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The NMA called on the government and the security forces to genuinely commit themselves to do more to prevent further incidences rather than taking reactive approaches on issues that a little more mindfulness, sincerity and commitment could nip in the bud. It further called on the religious and political leaders to be mindful and sensitive of their comments especially in the public domain which has the propensity to incite the public and enflame further, the embers of discord among the peace-loving citizens of Plateau State and the country at large.
