This created mixed feelings of joy and pain as the mothers and their loved ones rejoiced for the successful delivery and arrival of the new babies on one hand and pain on the other hand over their ordeals due to the activities of bandits in their ancestral homes.
An official of the North-South Power Station (NSP) has disclosed that at least 19 women who fled various banditry attacks in Niger State have delivered 22 babies.
The deliveries were taken at the Shiroro hydroelectric power station hospital in the Shiroro Local Government Area of the state.
This created mixed feelings of joy and pain as the mothers and their loved ones rejoiced for the successful delivery and arrival of the new babies on one hand and pain on the other hand over their ordeals due to the activities of bandits in their ancestral homes.
The Vice Chairman of the NSP, Mr. Olubumi Peters, made the disclosure while speaking during the 2022 NSP annual flood stakeholders’ sensitisation forum in Minna.
Peters said that the women fled banditry attacks from Galadima-Kogo and environs.
Represented by the Consultant on Corporate Social Responsibility to NSP, Mr. Abdullahi Hassan, Peters explained that thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Galadima-Kogo and over 30 communities in Shiroro took shelter at Government Day Secondary School, recently renovated by NSP foundation.
According to a Daily Post report, the NSP boss said the IDPs were sheltered in blocks of classroom construction at Government Day Secondary School, Zumba as well as the power station staff club at the company’s junior staff camp.
He further explained that during the period, "19 pregnant women delivered 22 babies in the company’s hospital, adding that food items worth millions of naira were provided by the company to the victims.”
Also speaking during the occasion, Chief Operating Officer of NSP, Mr. Ugochukwu Chioke, noted that the company would continue to place priority on the safety of lives and property of host communities.
Chioke added that the forum was to create awareness on flood and mitigation.
He said the power station was yet to spill water from its dam as the flood being experienced now by communities downstream were from rivers around.
“The dam is not filled yet, it is still receiving water and storage, before we spill water, we do alert communities upstream and downstream and when we spill, we are very conscious of people living downstream and we do what is called step release of water,” Chioke was quoted as saying.