About 40 illegal Schools of Health Technology in Benue State have been closed down.
The State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Cecilia Ojabo who disclosed this to our correspondent on Monday said the closure was to rid off the state of quackery.
Ojabo who lamented the proliferation of Schools of Health Technology in the state, said, ‘Benue has the highest schools of health technology in the country.’
The commissioner explained that the ministry had to set up a committee on quackery due to public outcry on the danger inherent in the activities of quack health personnel.
While stating that aside of not meeting the requirements for establishing such schools by the proprietors, Dr Ojabo said that products of such illegal schools of health technology were found running fake clinics and carrying out surgical operations.
The commissioner lamented that several lives have been lost in the rural communities in the state to the illegal activities of the quacks.
“We set up a committee to move round all the communities in the state due to public outcry about the illegal activities of these quacks, we learnt that those illegal schools of health technology train people who later open clinics and carry out surgical operation”.
“Many of these people in the process of carrying out their illegal activities killed the unsuspecting patients while those who are lucky to survive have their reproductive system destroyed in the guise of treating them for infertility”.
The commissioner who said that the exercise would be an ongoing one said the ministry was poised to make life meaningful for the people of the state, commending the state governor, Samuel Ortom for his contributions towards raising the standard of health care delivery in the state.