Pregnant women protest in Ondo

Unhappy with what they described as “outrageous” amount of money being charged for antenatal care by Ondo State government, women in various stages of pregnancies Thursday morning staged a protest at the Ondo State Specialist Hospital, Akure.

According to the angry pregnant women the state owned hospitals charge N25,000 for “normal” delivery and N50,000 for those who gave birth through Cesarean Section.

While noting that these were free under ‘Abiye Programme,’ a programmed by immediate past administration in the state, the women called on Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to “urgently reverse the charges.

The pregnant women, about 100 in number, who gathered at the ante-natal section of the hospital, claimed that they had been paying other various sums of money ranging from N500 to N4,000 for different reasons in the course of their ante-natal appointments.

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According to them, the state hospital workers always claimed that they are collecting the money on “orders from above.”

The immediate past government of the state under Olusegun Mimiko introduced “Abiye”, a programme that saw pregnant women and under-five children in the state enjoy free medical services.

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