Okowa Moved to Tears at Abavo Hospital Commissioning

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State on Friday inaugurated the ultra-modern Abavo General Hospital, Abavo in Ika South Local Government Area of the state.

Okowa became emotional at the occasion when he discovered that he had actually unveiled the portrait of his late mother, Mrs. Victoria Okowa whereas he thought that he was unveiling a marble plaque to mark the official opening of hospital.

The governor's mother, who died in 1982 at the age of 44 years, established the first maternity home in the agrarian community of Abavo in the 1960s.

The people appealed to Okowa through the President-General, Abavo Clan Union, Mr. Amaechi Onwumeri, to allow the maternity ward of the new hospital to be named after his late mother, who also hailed from Abavo town.

However, the governor moments later admitted that he only restrained himself from breaking down in tears after realising that he just unveiled the portrait of his own mother who he loved dearly.

Okowa stated this while commissioning three newly constructed roads at Owa-Oyibo, the administrative headquarters of Ika North-East Local Government Area, to conclude the projects commissioning programme, which was part of activities to celebrate his one year in office.

Before its upgrading and construction by Okowa, the Abavo General Hospital was initially conceived in 2004 as a cottage hospital by the Ibori administration with work on the project commencing in 2005, but it was not completed even though the Uduaghan government also made efforts to finish the project in 2008.