As many as nineteen women who fled various banditry attacks in Niger State, have given birth to babies.
They were delivered of twenty-two babies at the Shiroro hydroelectric power station hospital in the Shiroro local government area.
The Vice Chairman of the North-South Power Station (NSP), Mr Olubumi Peters, who made the disclosure during the 2022 NSP annual flood stakeholders sensitisation forum in Minna, said the women fled banditry attacks from Galadima-Kogo and environs.
Peters, who spoke through Mr Abdullahi Hassan, Consultant on Corporate Social Responsibility to NSP, explained,” thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Galadima-Kogo and over 30 communities in Shiroro local government took shelter at Government Day Secondary School, Shiroro recently renovated by NSP foundation.
According to him, 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.
Peters 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”.
Earlier, Mr Ugochukwu Chioke, Chief Operating Officer of NSP, noted that the company would continue to place priority on the safety of lives and property of host communities, adding that the forum was to create awareness on flood and mitigation.
The COO 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,” he explained.
