Dr. Agboyega Akenroye is the Medical Director of Balm Gilead Hospital, Ogba, Lagos State. Akenroye is a medical practitioner with a heart of gold. His free medical outreach has taken him to several states in Nigeria where he has led his team of medical doctors and surgeons to solve health related problems. Recently he took the free medical outreach to some prisons in the south western Nigeria where several inmates were operated upon successfully, all for free. ADEDAYO EMMANUEL met with him and here reports. Excerpts:
You recently led your team on some medical outreach in some prisons, what was the experience like?
It was a wonderful and insightful experience. We were able to get to Ilesha prison in Osun State to offer free surgical operation for some inmates that needed medical assistance. At Ilesha we were able to meet the prison Controller and the Doctor in charge of their health centre. Inside Ilesha prison It is very interesting to know that they have a full fledge theatre where you can conduct operations, we operated on six patients two of them were hernia repairs and three of them had gycoma and one has a granulation in the hand and we are happy that all of them recovered and were all happy.
We were also in the Federal Government Prison in Akure, Ondo State. We were able to meet the Medical Doctor in the state, Doctor Ilesanmi Ogunsuyi. We also met the Controller of Akure prison. In Akure prison we had a lot of hernia cases, ten of them. We operated all of them and all were successful and they were all happy.
Is it that hernia is prevalent among the prisoners?
I wouldn’t say that because some of them may have had it before they came to prisons without being able to take care of it, some of them had had challenges before that they couldn’t take care of. The prison was only a conducive environment for them to be treated. We shared Christ with them and some of them promised that if God can help them to be out, they won’t go into such vices that brought them to prison again. We made them know that what was not done for them while they were free, God arranged it to be done while they are in captivity. We were used to help them as they could not help themselves. That was in Akure prison.
Was the experience at the Ilesha prisons similar?
Yes it was similar. Some of them were surprised that things like this can be true, but by the time we finished operating them, they believed the society has not actually forgotten them. We shared Christ with them and they were happy. This singular service they benefited from changed their perspective to life and some of them actually promised to be of good behavior when they regain freedom. This is one of the gestures I believe can reform prison inmates.
How do you describe the prison environment?
Well we can see the warders are doing nice jobs, the prisons look neat, the Akure and Ilesha prisons are well taken care of. The controllers are doing nice jobs, compared to the other prisons I have visited in the country.
How easy is it for organisations like yours to access prisons to render this kind of service. Are there bottlenecks?
Because I have contact with Dr. Ilesanmi who is the Medical Doctor in charge of the prisons in Ondo State, it was easy. He actually did a lot to facilitate the opportunities for the inmates to benefit from the outreach. He was with us through out, the warders were cooperative, the Controller was also cooperative. We went with all our nurses, and equipment. He facilitated the operation to ensure the inmates benefit from the opportunity. The prisons also have their medical team and some of their staff also assisted us to do what we needed to do. They gave us adequate security as well and ensured all things went well and peacefully.
You were also in the Ajah area of Lagos, what was the experience?
The experience was equally good. This particular one was in a Redeemed Church and members and people in the community came out in good number to benefit from the free medical outreach. They were all happy and we were also grateful to God that we were so empowered to render such services for free.
