The organization is dismayed that immediately after the commissioning of the hospital, intended to serve the health needs of the people, the facility which gulped billions of naira was closed.
On Monday, the organization in the petition, signed and submitted to the Speaker of the State Assembly by its leaders, Marxist Kola Edokpayi, Speaker; Wilson Imasuen, Secretary General and Emmanuel Agbogun Publicity Secretary demanded answers.
The activists submitted 31 copies of the petition to the legislature for immediate action. The petition was received by Honourable Osaigbovo Iyoha and Honourable Damian Lawani on behalf of the Right Honourable Speaker, Hon Kabiru Adjoto.
At the time of submission, Ajoto was said to be attending a crucial meeting at the Government House ahead of the formal presentation of the budget proposal for 2019 fiscal year by Governor Godwin Obaseki to the State House of Assembly.
The people’s parliament lamented that the existing Central Hospital built during the colonial era has only one general surgeon; no X-ray services and eye clinics because the structures housing the units were demolished to pave way for the construction of the 5 star hospital that has not admitted a single patient since commissioning.
This dire situation, it said has been responsible for the unnecessary death of patients that knock at the door of the hospital for help and whose relatives consequently visit their angers on doctors and nurses of the facility for deaths of their loved ones.
“Presently Sir, most facilities at the old hospital are in comatose , that is why people
who lose their loved ones in the hospital engage both doctors and nurses in a fight on
daily basis .
“Edo people cannot be dying on daily basis as a result of lack of bed spaces for
patients while the monumental structure built as a 5 star Hospital is now occupied by
rodents, mosquitoes, snake and other dangerous animals. Edo cannot afford to waste
billions of tax payer’s money invested in the hospital in the midst of economic
quagmire,” the organization said.
Below is full text of the petition as submitted to the lawmakers:
The Speaker and Honourable Members,
Edo State House of Assembly,
Chief Anthony Enahoro Complex,
Kings Square, Benin City.
Sir,
URGENT NEED FOR THE HOUSE TO INVESTIGATE WHY THE 5 STAR
CENTRAL HOSPITAL IS NOT OPENED AFTER COMMISSIONING BY
PRESIDENT MOHAMMADU BUHARI IN 2016.
It is very lucid that the Former Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Aliu
Oshiomhole invited the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria to commission the Ultra Modern Central Hospital in
November 7 th , 2016. Any project that is commissioned is ready for public use like Edo
University, Iyamho that has long started admitting students after its inauguration in
March 2016.
Sir, the decision to build the Ultra Modern Central Hospital came after Comrade
Olaitan Oyerinde was murdered in May 2012. Adams Oshiomhole the Governor was
angry when he learnt that shortly after Olaitan Oyerinde was shot, He was rushed to
the Central hospital but there was no life-saving facility to resuscitate him before he
gave up the ghost.
Apart from Oyerinde’s incident, Oshiomhole equally vowed to
equip the new hospital with cancer screening equipment so that other Edo people will
not suffer the same fate as his late wife who died of cancer.
He commenced the building of the new structure which was conceptualized as a modern accident and
emergency Centre with state of the art diagnostic equipment and private wards for
specialized medical care.
Edo people generally applauded Oshiomhole’s vision
especially with the commissioning of the magnificent edifice in November 2016 by
President Mohammadu Buhari , a man of integrity that vowed to wipe out corruption
from the system.
As it is now, the colonially built Central Hospital has only one general surgeon, no X-
ray services and eye clinics because the structures housing these units were
demolished to pave way for the construction of the 5 star hospital that has not
admitted a single patient even with the equipment.
Presently Sir, most facilities at the old hospital are in comatose , that is why people
who lose their loved ones in the hospital engage both doctors and nurses in a fight on
daily basis .
Edo people cannot be dying on daily basis as a result of lack of bed spaces for
patients while the monumental structure built as a 5 star Hospital is now occupied by
rodents, mosquitoes, snake and other dangerous animals. Edo cannot afford to waste
billions of tax payers money invested in the hospital in the midst of economic
quagmire.
As Martin Luther King Jr stated that “Our lives begin to end the day we become
silent about things that matter.”
In 1963 President John F. Kennedy, in recalling the words of the author of the epic
poem; The Divine Comedy (1321) told an audience “Dante once said that the hottest
places in hell are reserved for those who in a moral crisis maintain their reality.
That same year, while speaking to the United Nations, Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile
Selassie (1892 – 1975) said “Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who
could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence
of the voice of justice when it matters most that made it possible for evil to triumph.
Sir, silence is not golden as far is this matter is concerned. Edo is our state, we have no
other state to call our state. We cannot afford to waste billions of naira that is enough
to build a small nation after war in an elephant project presently occupied by rodents,
snakes, scorpions and other dangerous animals while the poor masses have no access
to health facilities.
To this end, We want to humbly demand that the House set up a Committee to
investigate the rationale behind the closure of the Hospital since its inauguration in
2016. While we anticipate positive response to our humble demand, do accept our warmest
greetings and our continuous determination to defend the voiceless, the vulnerable and
the poorest of the poor in our society.
Yours faithfully,
Marxist Kola Edokpayi
Speaker
Wilson Imasuen
Secretary General
Emmanuel Agbogun
Publicity Secretary
