The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, has commissioned the ultra-modern 522 bed-space University of Uyo Teaching Hospital hostel built by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, in Uyo Local Government Area.
Performing the ceremony recently on behalf of the governor, the Deputy Governor of the state, Mr. Moses Ekpo, said that the state-of-the-art hostel, built for medical students, was very significant as it would spur the state to rise to the challenges facing the medical sector where doctors were in short supply.
The governor said the hostel would increase the capacity of the teaching hospital to train more doctors in a very conducive environment.
“This will improve the provision of health services to the people. We are grateful to the NDDC for helping us touch the lives of people in the state. I am confident that the commission will continue to meet the expectations of the people,” he said
The NDDC Managing Director, Sir Bassey Dan-Abia, said that the commission was determined to complete all on-going projects as directed by the Federal Government, adding that the current funding challenges facing the interventionist agency would not stop it from achieving its goals. He said that out of the 19 student hostels being built by the NDDC across the Niger Delta region, only one was completed when the current board was inaugurated on December 16, 2013. “Since we came in, four more hostels have been commissioned and four others are ready. We have commissioned similar hostels in Imo State University, Federal University of Science and Technology, Owerri, University of Benin and the Delta State University, Abraka,” he said.
In his own remarks, the Chairman of the NDDC Governing Board, Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, said that the commission was determined to make a difference in the lives of the people of the region, noting that the second proto-type hostel at the main campus of the university would equally be completed very soon.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Professor Comfort Ekpo, described the 522 bed-space hostel as the biggest and the most modern in the university, backed with other facilities such as a 250 KVA power generator, perimeter fence and a newly asphalted access road. She said that the problem of providing accommodation for the medical students had been pressing as it was one of the major considerations for admitting more students in that very important field of study.
Prof. Ekpo, applauded the NDDC for consistently coming to the aid of the university community in providing key infrastructure. She said that the commission had in the past donated five transformers to the university as well as building internal roads with solar-powered street lights
Speaking in the same vein, the Chief Medical Director of UNIUYO Teaching Hospital, Prof. Etete Peters, said that the NDDC’s intervention had given the university a solid foundation that would enhance the training of medical students. “The hostel will help to establish the hospital as a first class tertiary health facility in the region,” he said.
The Akwa Ibom State governor also commissioned the Ikot Akan-Ibekwe Akpan Nya Road in Ikot-Abasi/Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of the state. Cutting the tape on behalf of the governor, Mr. Ekpo, his deputy, commended the NDDC for undertaking the emergency repairs and reconstruction of the very busy road linking Akwa Ibom and Rivers states.
A representative of the benefiting communities, Barr. Clement Udoh, said that they appreciated the efforts of the NDDC, especially against the backdrop of inadequate funds for the execution of projects.
Source:Thisday
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