Prof Gregory Ibe, the Abia State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2023 election, has said that he will ensure that the health needs of the people of the state are tackle head on if elected as governor of Abia State.
In his speech during the flagged off his free medical and surgical outreach in Umuahia on Tuesday, August 2, 2023, Ibe assured that he will take closer look on health institutions in the state and rebuild some of them that are dilapidating.
Represented by the party’s deputy governorship candidate, Hon Obinna Ichita, who is also the lawmaker representing Aba South in Abia State House of Assembly, Ibe announced that apart from getting the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) receive back its accreditation from the National University Commission (NUC), he will carried out a remarkable intervention in education, agriculture, security etc.
The APGA governorship candidate expressed shock that most public office holders enjoy the comfort of the office they occupy without offering the citizenry the benefits of that office, pointing out that the free medical and surgery scheme was not meant to serve as a platform to enable him win election, but a philanthropic gesture.
In his comment, the Coordinator of the scheme, Dr Ojum Ogwo, explained that the three-day programme in Umuahia, the headquarters of Abia Central, is expected to treat 4,500 patients, adding that the scheme will also visit other zones like Aba and Ohafia to carry out similar exercise.
According to him, what the scheme handles were outpatient cases and that serious cases that require surgery were being referred to the Gregory University Hospital for immediate attention.
The APGA Chairman in Abia State, Rev Augustine Ehiemere who also spoke, argued that at no time in the history of the state was a free medical and surgical outreach pioneered by a visionary governorship candidate be more apt, stressing that the philanthropic gesture of Prof Ibe should be appreciated.
The medical and surgery programme being held at the Event Centre, Umuahia was attended by hundreds of sick people mainly the aged who were treated of all manner of ill-health free of charge.
Uche Nwosu is a two time Shell Petroleum PLC award winner in the year 2000;
He won the Shell Award on Investigative Journalism and Environmental Cleanliness.
