APGA Accuses Gov. Ikpeazu of Destroying Abia Health Sector

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has lamented the health sector’s situation in Abia, accusing Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of insensitivity.

The APGA chairman in Abia, Rev Augustine Ehiemere, decried the state’s health system while speaking at the flag-off ceremony of the annual free medical/surgical scheme sponsored by the party’s governorship candidate, Prof Greg Ibe, through his Greg Ibe Foundation.

The head of the medical team, Dr Ojum Ogwo, said over 50 medical doctors and other medical personnel from different areas of speciality were on the ground to attend to people battling various ailments.

He decried the Peoples Democratic Party-led administration of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu for “supervising the collapse of not only the health sector but other sectors in the state.”

Ehiemere said, “There is no gainsaying the fact that public hospitals and health centres across Abia State are in a state of near comatose following the ongoing every Tuesday strike by doctors.”

According to him, the government’s neglect of the sector caused the strike as doctors at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) are owed 25 months’ salaries, and staff of the Health Management Board owed over 11 months’ arrears.

Ehiemere noted that Abia was already feeling the impact of the collapsed health sector with “avoidable deaths of Abians who cannot afford medicare elsewhere.”

Ibe, represented by his running mate, Hon Obinna Ichita, decried the state of hospitals, describing them as mortuaries. He accused the Abia government of displaying high insensitivity to the health sector.

“The present administration in the state has lost value for life. The only functional unit at ABSUTH is the mortuary, and the government is not moved. Fridays and Saturdays are now for burial due to the high rate of death in Abia,” he said.

Ibe added, “It’s only in Abia that doctors are owed for 25 months, and the government is busy telling stories. Our only state teaching hospital, the Abia State University Teaching Hospital, ABSUTH, Aba, has been under lock and key for over one year because doctors are owed for over two years.”