By Anu Smith
Hundreds of people in Ibadan struggled to access free eyes services organised by the Al-Basar International Foundation in conjunction with King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.
In an interview, the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the program, Alhaji Jamiu Aliyu said Al-Basar International Foundation is providing free mobile eye services to people in southwest Nigeria.
“For the first day, we have treated more than 7,000 patients all from southeastern states; Oyo, Lagos, Ogun and Osun states.
“And we have shortlisted 450 patients for surgery which commenced on the first day.
“We planned for 500 surgeries and others would be giving medication and optical glasses, for a week,” Aliyu said.
He noted that controlling the crowd was the major challenge as all patients wanted to be seen at once.
“Aside from that, every other challenge is trivial,” Aliyu said.
Some of the patients who spoke with REPORTERS AT LARGE, lamented the poor coordination of the program, despite having been around early for the free eyes services.
