Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for the choice of Imo State as site for Infectious Diseases Medical Centre for the South East zone.
The governor, on Saturday at Orlu, while performing the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of 200-bed emergency and infectious diseases medical centre by NNPC/SEPLAT at IMSUTH, Orlu, said: “Our people should be rest assured that the much awaited permanent solution to infectious diseases is here in Imo State.”
Uzodimma who expressed gladness over the ceremony, said the project when completed would save lives and make the people much healthier.
While acknowledging that the coronaavirous was a dreadful infectious disease that had no known cure for now, he asserted that the new-normal came with a lesson and a challenge.
His words: “Consequently, the lesson learnt was never to be caught napping again by any type of infectious disease curable or incurable, and one of such measures is the very programme of the construction of the 200 bed emergency and infectious diseases medical centre.”
The governor extended his depth of gratitude to President Buhari, whose initiative brought the Nigerian oil and gas sector, ably led by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in conjunction with SEPLAT, to agree to partner with the state to erect the befitting medical edifice in Imo.
According to the governor, with “the construction of the specialist hospital the threat of contagious diseases such as Coronavirous, AIDS, Cholera, Ebola, Avian Flu and even Hepatitis could be effectively controlled and contained.”
Earlier in his remarks, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, said that the project was one of the three categories of the oil and gas industries intervention initiatives aimed at assisting states in the six geo-political zones to curb the Coronavirous pandemic in Nigeria which anchors Delivery of Medical Infrastructure.
He explained that the other key thematic areas were Provision of Medical consumables; and Development of Logistics and in-patient Support System.
In his address at the ground-breaking ceremony, the Chairman of SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company PLC, Dr. A.B.C. Orjiako said the project was an outcome of NNPC collaboration with SEPLAT to support Imo State towards the strengthening of the state’s efforts in its fight against the management of the current pandemic and to be a centre for the treatment of all forms of infectious diseases.
He added that it was anticipated that the facility when completed would provide succour to the people of the state and her neighbours.
