Obiano Approves Free Medical Services To Civil War Veterans, Former Rangers FC Players

Governor Willie Obiano has directed that all Civil War veterans be provided with quality medical services in the state at no cost to the veterans.

The veterans will receive medical treatment through the Anambra State Health Insurance Scheme run by the Anambra State Health Insurance Agency, (ASHIA).

A statement signed by the state commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. C. Don Adinuba, says the government gesture is coming as the nation is marking fifty years anniversary of the end of the civil war, and in response to numerous request for financial assistance by most of the veterans.

To this end, a committee to conduct a census of the veterans is to be set up shortly under the leadership of retired Air vice Marshall Ben Chiobi.

Members of the committee include return Colonel Emmanuel Nwobosi the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. C. Don Adinuba; the Commissioner for Local Government, Town Unions and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Greg Obi, and the Executive Secretary of the Anambra State Health Insurance Agency, Dr Simeon Onyemaechi, as well as a representative of the Secretary to the State Government.

According to the government statement, the committee will have a month to submit a list of all the veterans in the state, their state of origin, notwithstanding.

The statement also says Governor Obiano has further decided to include all members of the Rangers International Football Club of Enugu who played in the 1970s and the early 1980s among those to benefit from the health insurance at the state government’s expense.

Since its re-launch on September fourteen, 2018, the Anambra State Health Insurance Scheme has registered over eighty-one thousand individual participants who pay only one thousand naira a month or twelve thousand naira annually to receive a wide range of medical treatments, including advanced surgeries.

Also, two hundred and sixty eight leading hospitals are participating in the scheme, including Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, and Chukwuemeka Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Amaku in Awka, as well as mission medical facilities.