3,000 patients to benefit from NDDC free medical outreach
Port Harcourt -- Over 3,000 patients are expected to benefit from the Free Health Care Medical Programme of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, currently taking place at the General Hospital, Oguta in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State.
The NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, said the week-long free healthcare programme, which the NDDC organised in partnership with the Arit Walden Free Healthcare Mission, was in compliance with the commission’s mandate to intervene in the health needs of the people.
Ogbuku, who was represented by the NDDC Director, Education, Health and Social Services, Dr. George Uzonwanne, said over two million Niger Deltans, who had little or no access to modern health facilities, had benefitted from the medical missions over the years.
He said the medical interventions ranged from consultations for malaria, upper respiratory tract infections and children who had cuts to cogent cases such as fibroid surgeries, eye surgeries with intraocular lens implantation and dental surgeries.
Ogbuku noted that there were many remarkable stories and testimonies, which had come out of the interventions, emphasising that what NDDC had done was “to provide the platform for God to perform miracles in the lives of our people”.
He said: “As it is always said, health is wealth. And so, as part of the strategy to bring prosperity to the Niger Delta region, it was urgent and imperative for the Commission to build a region of healthy people. You cannot build a place without also building the people. Indeed, the people are the primary beneficiaries of development and it is they who can make development sustainable.
“The current Governing Board and Management of the Commission believe that to develop a place we must be concerned about and committed to developing the people. To heal the people is to heal the land and make it whole.
“In the coming weeks, the Commission will be visiting all the nine mandate states of the Niger Delta region, to take this free health programme to our people. In this first phase, we will also be visiting Owaza in Abia State, Otuasega in Ogbia, and Yenagoa, both in Bayelsa State, Akamkpa in Cross River State, Otujeremi in Ughelli North, in Delta State, Auchi in Edo State, Igbokoda in Ondo State and Ogu in Rivers State.”
Ogbuku observed that the NDDC was providing a platform through which God would continue to work miracles in the lives of the people and through which the needs of Niger Deltans could begin to be realised and their dreams of a better Niger Delta region fulfilled.