Sickle cell board chairman urges gov to wade into crisis

The Edo State Sickle Cell Board Chairman, Prof. (Mrs.) Caroline Edijana Omoti, has called on Governor Godwin Obaseki to urgently wade into the crisis brewing at the centre for the ailment. This followed allegation of misconduct by some members of the Sickle Cell Club, who she said, have a penchant for blackmailing board members.

Omoti, while calling on the governor to check their excesses and actions, alleged that some members of the club in the board in December 2016 organised a protest at the Sickle Cell Centre to protest the removal of Dr. Peter O. Iyawe from its service.

She alleged that her investigation showed that the club members were acting unethical and providing sickle cell patients opioids drugs that are considered dangerous to the health of patients. She warned all those involved in the nefarious acts to desist just as she sanctioned members directly involved in the administration of the dangerous drugs to sickle cell patients.

Omoti alleged that her decision to stop the use of opioids for patients did not go down well with those members sanctioned by her, hence, the call for her removal. She wondered why some members of the sickle cell association are in the habit of blackmailing the authorities and had held several public protests against the former Commissioner for Health and the Edo State Government.

Reacting to the allegations, members of the Sickle Cell Club in a petition against Mrs. Omoti, signed by its president, Gregory Asekome Aigbonoga, alleged that the board chairman lacks emparthy, respect and dignity towards sickle cell sufferers and their relatives in the centre. They added that under her watch, drugs that were supposed to be administered to patients by donor-agencies are either sold at exorbitant prices to sickle cell sufferers or allowed to expire completely.

Aigbonoga stated that the immediate source of the crisis brewing at the centre was the purported sack of Iyawe, a medical practitioner and one of the old hands in the centre. He urged the governor to regularise the employment of Iyawe and other members of staff of the centre such that their employment would be regulated by extant civil/public service rules.