Hundreds of people in Ibadan struggled to access free eye services organised by the Al-Basar International Foundation in conjunction with the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre.
In an interview, Alhaji Jamiu Aliyu, chairman of the program’s local organizing committee, said that Al-Basar International Foundation provides free mobile eye services to people in southwest Nigeria.
“For the first day, we have treated more than 7,000 patients from southeastern states: Oyo, Lagos, Ogun and Osun.
“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 simultaneously.
“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 programme, despite having been around early for the free eye services.
