By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
The Speaker,Kogi State House of Assembly,Prince Mathew Kolawole,has directed the Committee on Health in the Assembly to meet with the Commissioner for Health, with a view to looking into state of General Hospitals.
He gave the directive on Tuesday during plenary while ruling on the motion seeking the rehabilitation of of General hospital, Oguma in Bassa Local Governnent Area of the state, sponsored by Mr Ranyi Daniya, representing Bassa Constituency in the Assembly.
The Speaker also directed the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to meet with Local Government Chairmen, to look into why hospital staff were not always around to attend to patients.
Earlier in his motion, Daniya appealed to the state government to rehabilitate General Hospital, Oguma in Bassa Local Government Area, to boost the health of the people of his Constituency.
His colleague, Edoko Ododo Moses,who seconded the motion,emphassed the importance of the health facility to the community, adding he was “a witness to how unfit the facility is to be called a general hospital.”
In a statement signed by Julius Olushola Abel,Special Assistant on New Media to the Speaker,the Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Mohammed’, who also supported the motion reiterated the popular adage that “health is wealth.”
The lawmaker, therefore, suggested an additional prayer that, the House Committee on Health should invite the Hospital’s Chief Medical Director for some questioning, noting that the motion bodered on personnel and medicine.
He said that the hospital should not be so poor not to have medicine and personnel, being the last hope of the common man.
Cosmas Atabor Ilemona,who also supported the motion, noted that if the General Hospital is put to proper use, it would be a saving grace to the constituents and reduce the mortality rate of Kogi easterners.
He suggested that the title of the motion be adjusted and some of the prayers, adding that “the House is to resolve and not to appeal”.
Alfa Momoh Rabiu of Ankp II, who also threw his weight behind the motion, stessed the need for Hospitals in Ankpa Federal Constituency to be rehabilitated as well as completion of the Cottage Hospital in Dekina, noting that work on the cottage hospital had reached 90 per cent completion.
