Secret Reporters
Charity they say begins at home and Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, is ready to carry out the maxim to the letter in his latest adventure.
The supplementary bill sent to the Delta State House of Assembly to the tune of N15.9 billion which was passed without challenge by the lawmakers, despite obvious error in the appropriation, will see the people of Owa Alero in Ika North East having the best diagnostic centre in the state, to the envy of the Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH), which can’t boast of such.
The supplementary budget though a public document but shrouded in secrecy reveals how the sum of N520 million was budgeted to build a diagnostic centre in the birth place of Okowa. The budget is silent if the over half a billion will only be used for the building or it will include equipping the centre.
The budget is also silent on the type of building the government intends to construct with such eye popping public funds.
What Okowa can do with N520 million
Fact findings by SecretReporters on what the State Governor should have done with the state fund in hospitals shows that there are two hospitals in Ika South, namely Central Hospital, Agbor and Abavo General Hospital, which is just a neighbouring community to Owa Alero in Ika North East, where the diagnostic centre will be built.
With the N520 million, the laboratory centres of the two hospitals will be fully equipped with modern diagnostic centre, which will serve both local government areas. The same money will also be used to equip ten other central hospitals across the state if judiciously put to use
The Commissioner for Health, Mr Mordi Ononye could not be reached for his reaction before press time.