By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Enugu State Executive Council (EXCO) has awarded contract for the immediate construction of 7 units of Type 3 Primary Health Care Centre in Ezeagu, Nkanu East, Igbo-Etiti, Igbo-Eze South, Isi-Uzo, Udenu and Uzo-Uwani Local Government Areas of the state.

The health centres, according to the Commissioner for Information, Nnanyelugo Chidi Aroh, will be “fully equipped and with a water borehole and standby power generator in each of the health facility”.

Aroh, who stated that the decision was in line with Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s vision and the determination of the EXCO “to continually increase the state government’s capacity to provide quality and accessible health care”, disclosed that the council “directed the contractors handling these projects to ensure they are completed in 90 days as stipulated in the terms of contract”.

The information commissioner further disclosed that the state government approved “renovation works, improvement of facilities and provision of essential supplies in 34 health facilities, across the 17 Local Government Areas, to scale up delivery of linked services and preparedness against community spread of COVID-19 pandemic by the Enugu State Save One Million Lives (SOML) Project”.

Also approved by the council, according to Aroh, was the upgrade of infrastructure and rehabilitation of the General Hospital Ogrute, Enugu-Ezike in Igbo-Eze North LGA (phase one).

It would be recalled that Gov. Ugwuanyi paid an unscheduled visit to the hospital last week and directed the State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure to immediately evaluate the health facility with a view to rehabilitating it to serve the public better.

The commissioner added that the upgrade and rehabilitation of the hospital will include construction of a borehole with a 10,000-litre capacity overhead tank; perimeter fencing of the entire land area, and reconstruction and asphalting of the access road.

He stated that the council equally approved the upgrade of infrastructure and renovation works at Nsukka District Hospital to include construction of borehole with a 10,000-litre capacity overhead tank and rehabilitation of an existing 10,000-litre capacity overhead tank, reticulation of water to all existing structures and correction works, external works/landscaping of new hospital building.

The council went further to approve the construction of additional Doctors Residential Quarters at the Nsukka Isolation and Treatment Centre and the purchase of 200 units of ultra-modern automated hand washing machine and hand sanitizer from the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu “for immediate distribution to the 17 LGAs, major markets, schools and designated public places to encourage proper hand hygiene in line with the health protocol of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC)”.

According to Aroh, “Council further considered and approved a memo from the Enugu State Ministry of Agriculture for the construction and development of an ultra-modern Efi Igbo Cattle Ranch at Udenu LGA, to encourage the mass production and ranching of our indigenous breed of cattle to meet the ever increasing demand for beef and allied products in the state.”

The commissioner noted that the council expressed its appreciation and gratitude to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, for locating the newly created Force CID Annex of the Nigeria Police Force CID to Enugu, covering the entire South-East and South- South geopolitical zones and to be headed by an Assistant Inspector General of Police, in Enugu, “and assures the IGP of the maximum cooperation of the Enugu State Government.”

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