Miss Loretta Okoro
A 28-year-old female National Youth Service Corps member, Loretta Okoro, who is serving her fatherland in Bayelsa State, has cried out for help over pains caused by bites she sustained from her employer, Prof. Klem Imananah's dogs.
Punch reported that the corps member was attacked and bitten by three security dogs who reportedly pounced on her about 7:00pm in her employer’s house on December 5, 2015, where she was posted for her primary assignment at Opolo in the Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa state.
In an exclusive chat with a correspondent on Tuesday, the NYSC member lamented that her employer and the state chapter of the NYSC had abandoned her to her fate, and alleged that since the incident occurred, she had not gone through proper medical treatment and that her health had deteriorated.
Okoro, a member of Stream A, with NYSC number NUA/2015/162926, said though the wounds had healed on the surface, she later started suffering from hallucination, numbness, mental torture and psychological imbalance, and accused her employer of neglect.
“On December 5, 2015, I was attacked by three dogs owned by Prof. Imananah who I was attached to. The first hospital I was taken to had no doctor to attend to me.
“I called a friend of mine who came to take me to the Federal Medical Centre in Yenagoa. The injuries were cleaned every day and I was given injections. I spent three weeks at the hospital and later went home.
“The following day after being discharged, I started feeling some strange ailment. I have been trying to be stable since then. I can no longer sleep. I see strange and horrible things in my dreams. I have been reaching out to the NYSC to know if they can be of help, but nothing has happened till now. They claimed I am only pretending.
“Even the owner of the dogs has been threatening me with court action, saying that I am embarrassing him. I have not been able to do anything. Things have gone beyond my imagination. I have yet to get back to normal,” she said.
Okoro, an indigene of Imo State, appealed to the federal and state governments to wade into the matter, adding that the NYSC in the state had not given her matter the attention it deserved, adding that since the incident occurred, no one from the NYSC had called to know her condition.
Another NYSC member who is a colleague to Okoro, said the victim’s health had worsened, adding that she needed urgent medical attention.
“It was unpleasant on Monday evening. She was hallucinating and screaming throughout the night. I knew her from the camp. But now, everything about her health has changed. NYSC is supposed to protect corps members. But with what I have seen in the case of Lorreta Okoro, we are just on our own. If something urgent is not done, Lorreta may lose her life,” Kingsley said.
