By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has pledged to support the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) in repairing some of the equipment damaged during the recent flood that ravaged Maiduguri and its environs.
The Managing Director of NEDC, Ambassador Goni Mohammed Alkali, made the pledge when he led a team to UMTH to assess the extent of the flood damage to health facilities and equipment.
While taking the NEDC board and management round some of the damaged equipment, the Chief Medical Director of the UMTH, Prof. Ahmed Ahijo said ,”the hospital dreamt to be one of the best hospitals in Nigeria but the recent flood has drawn the hospital to over 20 years back.”
“We have the latest equipments in our cancer centre, which we believe it will help us stop medical tourism abroad but this flood has taken us back, because most of these machines or equipment were submerged and damage by the flood”, Prof Ahijo said.
The CMD UMTH added that the MRAP machines that was bought at cost of N1.6 billion requires about N2 to N3 billion to repair them due to the inflation caused by the exchange rate, pointing out that some of the machines that were bought at the cost of N1.3 billion now cost N 6 billion.
The NEDC board and management also visited various project sites in Borno State, including the Alau Dam, Jere Bowl road, Eye and Dental Hospital, and the NEDC State office, which is currently under construction. They also assessed other projects awarded by the commission in Maiduguri and Jere local government areas of Borno State.
Speaking to journalists at the Alau Dam site, the NEDC MD said: ”as you can recall, we were here as team, about two or three times including the journalists and the Jere bowl road. We have contractual transaction unfortunately the recent flood has affected both contracts.
“We are here to assess how the flood affect the contract awarded for the construction of dyke and the way forward to see whether we can continue with the contract or revoke and re-award the contract”, Ambassador Alkali said.
“The contract for the construction of the dyke was awarded to control water spillage but with the recent flooding we want to assess the damage and see whether to continue with the project or re-award another one”, MD NEDC added .
While at the famous Eye and Dental Hospital Maiduguri, the board members and management team were conducted round the facilities and equipments damaged by the flood by the CMDs.
The NEDC boss promised that commission would intervene with some funds for repairs or replacements of the equipments among others.
At the NEDC State Office under construction, Ambassador Alkali assured immediate completion of the project and appreciated work done so far while commending the contractors for a good job while assuring that the project damaged would be repaired by the contractors
