Abia revamps 200 health centres, reclaims public school assets

The Abia State Government has said it has concluded plans to renovate and retrofit 200 existing Primary health centres across the state before the end of this year.

The state Commissioner for Information, Okey Kanu, revealed this while briefing journalists on the outcome of this week’s State Executive Council meeting presided over by the state governor, Alex Otti on Monday.

Kanu said that the project which is to be executed by the Ministry of Health in partnership with the Abia State Primary Healthcare Development Agency has a delivery period of one hundred days with effect from September 2024.

“It is a bold step being undertaken by the Ministry (Health) and work will commence across the State in those 200 Primary Health Centres in the first week of September and the delivery of those projects will be somewhere around December.

“All the 184 wards of the state will benefit from this project. I believe that will turn out to be some form of Christmas gift to Abians.” Kanu stated.

He also announced that the state recorded 13 suspected cases of Monkey Pox within Isiala Ngwa, noting that 9 out of the cases returned negative with one positive whereas the remaining three are still unconfirmed.

On the recovery of public lands taken over by private individuals, Prince Kanu announced that the committee constituted to that effect has swung into action, starting with recovering lands belonging to Government College Umuahia, assuring that the government will not back out from the exercise no matter the pressure.

“They (the committee) were in Government College Umuahia where they retrieved the land that has been compromised there.

“The government will not back out from the program of recovering all the lands illegally acquired by unscrupulous individuals in our schools. The committee will not back out no matter the pushback from those who may have engaged in this selfish take over of school lands in the State.” Kanu noted.

He also informed that as part of the ongoing reforms in the education sector, the verification of those private schools that were closed down will commence soon. The training of both Primary and Secondary teachers in the state by Educational Consultants, ERIT will soon be concluded while all the examinations conducted by the Education Development Center were successful.

On the road infrastructural development agenda of the state government, the Commissioner said a total of 108 roads have so far been maintained and rehabilitated across the state through direct labour.

He said that the design work for Ntigha – Mbawsi – Umuala Road is ongoing while the design for Onuimo-Tower of Peace Road has been completed. He added that the design for the Onuinyang – Okporoenyi -Oboro-Ikwuano road is almost completed while work is ongoing on many strategic roads across the State.

The Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Prof. Uche Emeh Uche explained that the government is not demolishing the buildings illegally erected on the land of Government College Umuahia.

Uche said, “This government is against the destruction of property, especially when it is not on the way. What the Recovery Committee demolished last weekend at Government College Umuahia were structures at the foundation level and the rest of them.

“Those properties, the government will not demolish them but will put them to proper use. It would be wasteful to demolish those properties.

Answering questions on the outbreak of epidemics in the state, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Dr Ngozi Azodo, said that contrary to speculations, the state had only two cases of Cholera while various isolation centres are being strengthened to contain any suspected cases of the outbreak.

Also, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma said that the state government has concluded the identification of houses to be demolished along the Umuikaa- Owerrinta road expansion, adding that compensation for the affected structures will commence soon.