Constituency project hospital equipment recovered from private home in Akwa Ibom

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, ICPC, on Wednesday recovered multi-million naira pieces of equipment meant for a constituency project in a private home in Akwa Ibom State.

The pieces of hospital equipment were meant for a cottage hospital at Ukana in the Essien Udim Local Government Area of the state.

The items include a dialysis machine, two 15 KVA generators and infant incubators.

The state Commissioner of ICPC, Mr. Shola Shodipo, who led journalists to evacuate and deliver the equipment to the hospital, said the commission discovered in the process of investigation that the items ought to have been delivered to the hospital since March 2018.

He said: “The ICPC is interested in constituency projects and has set up tracking groups in 12 states of the federation. In the course of our assignment, we discovered that three dialysis machines and other items for the Ukana Cottage Hospital were not delivered. We found only one in a private place, which was not delivered or installed in the hospital.

“The items were found in that building that we went to. These machines and other equipment were meant to be delivered since 2018. We have taken the items to the appropriate location. They are supposed to help the community in health care delivery.”

When asked who was responsible for storing the items in the private residence, Shodipo said: “We are still in the process of investigation. I will not be able to tell for now, but I can tell you that the items were meant for the cottage hospital and a particular company was awarded the contract.”

The consultant to the hospital, Dr Mary Udoh, who received the items, expressed appreciation to the ICPC for ensuring that they were delivered.

According to her, the equipment would go a long way in facilitating health care delivery to the residents of the community.

Udoh said: “On behalf of the hospital’s management, I want to say that we are very happy to receive the equipment today and I want to thank the ICPC for ensuring that these items were delivered to the right place.

“The equipment will help us in our service delivery to the people.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now