UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION (I): Bed-space corruption, terrible food, well-fed rats… Many things not right at ‘Yaba Left’ bit.ly/2RFkCyw Cc @Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo #MakeYabaLeftRight #UndercoverInvestigation 
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo After altering his looks and taking psychiatric lessons every day for one week, investigative journalist ‘@fisayosoyombo went under cover for three weeks in November, including 10 straight days on ward admission... #MakeYabaLeftRight #UndercoverInvestigation
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo As a patient of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, also known as 'Yaba Left', one of the nation’s most historic mental rehabilitation centres. thecable.ng/undercover-inv… #MakeYabaLeftRight #UndercoverInvestigation
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo The history of mental rehabilitation in Nigeria is incomplete without the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos. Since beginning life as the Yaba Lunatic Asylum in October 1907, when its primary purpose was to serve as a holding place for keeping the mentally ill...
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo ...out of the way of ‘normal’ people in the society, the hospital has played a leading role in the evolution of mental care to treatment and healing, not just holding, of patients. thecable.ng/undercover-inv… #MakeYabaLeftRight #UndercoverInvestigation
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo After three unrelated complaints in two years about the standard of medical services on offer, @fisayosoyombo decided to experience the hospital himself as a patient rather than believe the complainants. thecable.ng/undercover-inv… #MakeYabaLeftRight #UndercoverInvestigation
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo @OgbeniDipo @drobafemihamzat @lshaofficial @deselliot This small mass of crack #cocaine — worth between N5,000 and N10,000 depending on location of purchase — will ruin your life. Flee from it! thecable.ng/undercover-inv… #MakeYabaLeftRight #UndercoverInvestigation
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo @OgbeniDipo @drobafemihamzat @lshaofficial @deselliot No patient admitted at Yaba Left could refuse drugs or injections; any patient who tries it would be forcefully subdued by the Crisis Intervention Personnel, famed within and beyond the hospital for their reputation to overpower the hardest of drug addicts. #MakeYabaLeftRight
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo @OgbeniDipo @drobafemihamzat @lshaofficial @deselliot For the fourth time in less than a week, I was back at the Yaba Left, on November 18 without any assurance of securing bed space. After more than six hours of laborious wait, intense lobbying to see doctors and queuing up to pay fees, my admission was finally confirmed.
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo @OgbeniDipo @drobafemihamzat @lshaofficial @deselliot “Bring N20,000,” Mrs. Adeniyi, the orderly, ordered right inside the hospital reception. She never told us what it was for, and we got no receipt after paying. We would later find out it was for a Ghana-Must-Go bag I was to enter the ward with. #MakeYabaLeftRight
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo @OgbeniDipo @drobafemihamzat @lshaofficial @deselliot I arrived at Tolani Asuni, one of only two male drug wards at Yaba Left, in a hospital ambulance some minutes past 5pm. It was a block of five rooms comprising six beds each. Thirty patients in all. thecable.ng/undercover-inv… #MakeYabaLeftRight #UndercoverInvestigation
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo @OgbeniDipo @drobafemihamzat @lshaofficial @deselliot Dinner, served every 6pm, was eba and egusi, but I waited until a little after 8pm before eating. It was the first time in decades I was seeing eba so full of lumps, and egusi so bland and watery. thecable.ng/undercover-inv… #MakeYabaLeftRight #UndercoverInvestigation
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo @OgbeniDipo @drobafemihamzat @lshaofficial @deselliot @yinkanubi .@fisayosoyombo: "Even though I had not eaten all day, I lost my appetite instantly. I had ingested no more than three morsels when I spotted a strand of local sponge in the egusi. I showed my ‘neighbour’.
“Welcome to Yaba Left,” he exclaimed. #MakeYabaLeftRight
“Welcome to Yaba Left,” he exclaimed. #MakeYabaLeftRight
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo @OgbeniDipo @drobafemihamzat @lshaofficial @deselliot @yinkanubi The admission receipt… proof of the importance of feeding (half the total cost), and payment for laundry, which patients don’t always benefit from, and drugs, even though they weren’t prescribed for me. thecable.ng/undercover-inv… #MakeYabaLeftRight #UndercoverInvestigation
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo @OgbeniDipo @drobafemihamzat @lshaofficial @deselliot @yinkanubi Every drug patient pays a minimum of N120,000 for an initial two-month admission; N60,000 of that is for feeding. Technically, this means feeding is half the service rendered by Yaba Left. If it fails, therefore, the entire rehabilitation project is potentially as good as null.
@Fmohnigeria @MBuhari @MentallyAwareNG @victorr_ugo @nighealthwatch @followlasg @jidesanwoolu @WHO @OsagieEhanire @ogundamisi @DrOlufunmilayo @femigbaja @fisayosoyombo @ProfOsinbajo @OgbeniDipo @drobafemihamzat @lshaofficial @deselliot @yinkanubi Two, among the drugs taken by patients are Artane, which can cause dry mouth, and Thiamine, which can cause nausea. Therefore, patients on these drugs typically need their food tasty. Read more 👉thecable.ng/undercover-inv… #MakeYabaLeftRight #UndercoverInvestigation
