Ebonyi State Government has threatened to revoke any of the contracts awarded for upgrading of the 13 General Hospitals in the substantive Local Government Areas (LGAs) should any of the contractors fail to complete the project at the end of this April.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Daniel Umezurike, disclosed this during the weekend on the occasion of press conference marking the World Health Day.

He explained that none of the contractors has any reason to fail as none of their generated bills was yet to be paid by the State Government.

The Commissioner explained that issues of healthcare, more especially from the primary healthcare sector should not be toiled with, “the April deadline for completion of the projects is sacrosanct. We have served the contractors notice on this. No paper stays 24 hours on the

Governor’s table.”

Umezurike said that 171 primary healthcare centres have been upgraded in the 171 political wards in the state, noted that the efforts were meant to improve health services down to the far-to-reach communities in the state.

“As we speak Ebonyi State remains the number one state in malaria management. We have distributed 1.7 million insecticidal treated nets. We have distributed tricycle ambulances for the rural communities.

“We are also partnering the office of the wife of the governor on female genital mutilation and of course Ebonyi State is polio free due to robust immunisation activities,” he stated.

He, however, lamented that Nigeria as a country was very far from realising the goals of proving desired healthcare in the country for which reason many Nigerians including those at the top echelon go abroad for medical treatment.

Umezurike noted that for there to be reliable healthcare system, all ties of government, from wards to the national should meet the expected roles,

“With what is happening in Ebonyi state I grow the hope that Nigeria will one day get it right. Umahi has shown that leadership is the problem.”

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