•Hon Desmond Elliot with constituents
The lawmaker representing Surulere Constituency 1 at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Desmond Olusola Elliot, has commenced a health insurance scheme for the aged in the area.
Elliot, who kicked off the scheme yesterday as part of his birthday celebration, also gave out 500 free forms to prospective candidates of the Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The Frontier reports that the insurance scheme which he started with 700 beneficiaries, covers free drugs for hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, physiotherapy, laboratory services and anti-malaria.
The scheme was held in collaboration with Toptree Medical Centre at the Surulere Local Government Council secretariat.
Elliot further said that the UTME forms distribution is to encourage enrolment for tertiary education and raise the literacy bar in the constituency.
“Well, the focus of today is for our elderly in Surulere. For the past two years, we have been doing the Health Insurance Scheme.
“We started with 300 elderly people and last year we did 500. This year we are moving up to 1000 but for today we have counted about 700 presently.
“The idea is for us to help the elderly because mostly, they don’t suffer from malaria and thyroid alone as much diabetes, high blood pressure and others.
“So the health insurance scheme is to have coverage which will cover for diabetes management, physiotherapy, among others. We have about seven illnesses that are common with the elderly,” he said.
Concerning the UTME forms, he said the beneficiaries are those who have passed WASC examination.
“However, coming here we are seeing more people and we will accommodate them as well.
“All these are part of my birthday to thank God for sparing my life and my family. My wife and I just survived a major fire incident about 10 days ago.
“We will not relent in giving back to the constituents that have called us to serve them.
“We appreciate God that everybody came out alive and everything is fine and to God be the glory. I thank God for Hon. Faud Laguda who came out victorious in the Surulere Federal House of Representatives by-election that was held on Saturday.
“We can assure residents of Surulere that his representation will be top-notch. Our Chief of Staff who is our leader in Surulere is still with us to give us adequate guidance and help us through.
“Basically, we are adding more in terms of the dividends of democracy. If you recall, two weeks ago we were here and we gave out food items to over 700 widows and two cars to the youth. We will soon have the Femi Gbajabiamila Under-16 Football Competition through which we would preach against drug abuse, rape and cultism.
“We will be going to each school around Surulere. I will be going with celebrities as well. This effort is for us to also reach out to the younger generation,” he said.
