A nurse, Mrs Mary Oseikhuemen, working with the Edo State Primary Healthcare Development Agency and her four-months-old baby have reportedly died in a fatal accident along the Benin-Auchi highway.
Also, one Mrs. Juliet Idialu, a health attendant was also said to have died in the crash.
The accident reportedly occured on Thursday, May 16, 2024.
Blueprint gathered that the victims were attached to the primary healthcare in Esan West Local Government Area of the state.
It was gathered that four other staff sustained various degrees of injuries in the accident. However, two of them have been reportedly discharged from the hospital.
A colleague of the victims who craved anonimity stated that they were returning to their local government after a mandatory screening exercise in Benin City when an articulated truck rammed into a vehicle they were travelling on.
The source said: “the authorities mandated us to come to Benin City for physical verification. We appealed to them that the exercise should be done at the local government because of bad roads and insecurity.
“But they refused. The authorities threatened to stop the salaries of anyone who refused to present himself for the exercise.”
The Edo State Head of Service, Barrister Anthony Okungbowa, who led a delegation on a visited to the families of the deceased described the incident as unfortunate.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Directorate of Human Resources Management, Mr George Igberase, Okungbowa also sympathised with those receiving treatment at the hospital
He stated that the state government would compensate the families of the late staff and foot the medical bills of those receiving treatment at the hospital.
According to him, “we are here to condole with the families of our staff that died in a road accident recently. We were at the Oseikhuemen and Idialu families to condole and prayed with them.
“The Oseikhuemen lost a mother and a baby. We prayed that such incident will never happened again to the family.
“All I want to say is that Mr. Governor and the State government will not abandon them at this moment of grief.
“The two staff of EDSPHCDA came to Benin for an official assignment and on their way back they had that accident.”
