Lawmaker Provides Free Treatment to 449 Ebonyi indigenes
Benjamin Nworie in Abakaliki
No fewer than 60 pregnant women and 389 others received medical treatments in the ongoing free medical outreach programme of the member representing Ohaozara/ Onicha/ Ivo Federal constituency, Hon. Linus Okorie in Ebonyi State.
Among the beneficiaries of the medical treatment was little 2-month old baby whose case was most critical and has been scheduled for urgent surgery at the Federal Medical Centre in Abakaliki.
The free medical outreach and welfare programme which was organised in conjunction with AMURT Foundation and coalitions of professions takes place across the ten clans of the constituency and is also expected to end by November, 2018.
The sponsor of the programme said his Caring Heart Foundation had made a deposit of five hundred thousand naira at the FMC for the treatment of referral cases, that couldn’t be handled by the outreach health providers.
Flagging off the programme at Ugwuagba Akaeze in Ivo Local Government Area, the state governor, David Umahi commended the lawmaker for the initiative, stressing that it was to complement the efforts of the state government in tackling the health challenges in the state.
The governor represented by his deputy, Barrister Kelechi Igwe noted that despite the existence of poor health challenges inherited by the present administration in the state, the governor has comprehensively repositioned the sector.
Umahi further charged the the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dan Umezuruike, to always acquaint the public with the efforts and achievements of the state government in the health sector and as well sensitise them against the lassa fever scourge.
He expressed optimism that the gesture of the lawmaker to provide medical outreach to his constituency would spur other National Assembly members from the state to emulate, as Okorie was the only federal lawmaker that has brought leadership and politics to his people.
Umahi said: “men have been going to National Assembly before Hon. Linus Okorie but am sure they never brought these to your people. Linus Okorie is the only lawmaker that remembers that he’s coming from somewhere. I am also aware that he is not the only one that was sent to Abuja by the people of Ebonyi State but I am standing on the land of Akaeze to throw it as a challenge to all the members of the National Assembly from Ebonyi State, that we expect that from time to time, they will call us as state government to come and witness the programmes that they have developed for their people.
