By Bolanle Adesida
Residents of a community in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital have solicited the federal government’s intervention to activate an abandoned primary healthcare centre which has become a subject of controversy between the contractor and local government authorities.
The residents who spoke with Radio Nigeria lamented that the contractor handling the project had abandoned the site for the past 11 years, only to show up recently with a consignment of supply to the facility and asking the council authorities to take responsibility for the delivery.
The recent delivery of medical equipment which ought to elicit joy among the residents turned out to be a source of concern to the people due to the circumstances surrounding the project.
The abandoned multimillion naira primary health care centre, located at the Olomore Federal Housing Estate in Abeokuta North local government area of Ogun State was said to have been abandoned since 2012.
Some of the residents who spoke with Radio Nigeria said it was a sheer waste of public resources that the facility, attractively structured with hospital wards, offices and quarters for resident doctors had been neglected for so long at the detriment of the residents.
They complained that the project which was overtaken by thick bushes was renovated in 2021 but was abandoned again before the sudden arrival of the truck conveying a consignment of medical equipment to be deposited at the abandoned site.
In a reaction, the Public Relations Officer, of Abeokuta North Community Development Council, Mr Kabir Ayoola who said the abandoned structure was discovered to have been vandalized several times while the contractor was nowhere to be found also complained that much of the equipment being supplied was obsolete.
Also, a community leader, Mr Ademola Oladosu said people of the area were in great need of a functional hospital, hence the need for the relevant authorities to rise to the challenge of ensuring prompt completion of the project.
Representative of the contractor handling the project Mr Ayodele Adeyinka, who lamented that some fittings, including the cables earlier installed at the health centre, had gone missing called for measures to keep the new batch of equipment safe.
Responding, the Chairman Abeokuta North Local government, Prince Samson Ayorinde who accused the contractor of handling the project with levity, said the local government had made arrangements with the state-owned security outfits, the So Safe Corps and Amotekun to deploy their personnel to the centre.
The Stakeholders later took the inventory of the items supplied to the abandoned health centre, including an industrial generator, hospital beds, stretchers, wheelchairs, furniture and other medical essentials.
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