The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Edo State chapter, has said Governor Monday Okpebholo and the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Cyril Oshiomhole, lack the moral grounds to speak on the standard of the Stella Obasanjo Hospital or any other hospital in the state.
Publicity Secretary of the Edo PDP Caretaker Committee, Chris Osa Nehikhare, stated in a statement on Wednesday that it was ironic and laughable that Cyril Oshiomhole could speak on the standard of hospitals in the state.
PDP alleged that Cyril’s father, Adams Oshiomhole, as the governor of the state, superintended “the sham construction of the Edo Specialist Hospital where a section collapsed, due to structural defects, killing two innocent Edo citizens.”
Governor Okpebholo had, during a inspection tour of the facility, on Tuesday, described the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, as a scam hurriedly commissioned former Governor Obaseki.
He said construction work at the facility was ongoing and equipment were yet to be procured by the last administration before it hurriedly commissioned it as a completed project.
“After inspecting the facilities, it is clear that nothing was done here by the Obaseki-led administration as they just painted the building and fixed air conditioners to deceive the people to think the building was completed.
“I don’t know what Obaseki and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government did,” Governor Okpebholo had said.
On his own part, Dr Oshiomhole, who took the governor round the facilities, said the contractor that handled the Stella Obasanjo Hospital has a lot of explanations to make regarding the project.
“His Excellency has gone round to see the work and we have a lot of talking to do with the consultant and contractor because we thought that, by now, the work would have been almost ready.
“This building was commissioned by the last administration politically, but coming here it is like an abandoned building at the other side. A lot of explanations need to be done at this point,” the Commissioners for Health had said among other things.
The PDP, however, chided the Okpebholo-led government for desperately attempting to diminish the undeniable impact of the Stella Obasanjo Hospital on the state’s healthcare system for political reasons, describing the ploy as petty, ignoble and infantile.
Nehikhare said: “We are appalled and utterly disappointed by the petty, infantile and ignoble behavior of the Monday Okpebholo-led administration in attempting to diminish the undeniable impact of the Stella Obasanjo Hospital on the state’s healthcare system.
“It is widely acknowledged by anyone who has visited or used the hospital that it ranks as one of the best in the South-South region, if not the entire country.
“This was made possible by the huge investment made by the immediate past government of Mr. Godwin Obaseki, in upgrading and equipping the hospital to world-class standards.
“We are not surprised by the childish criticism coming from a clueless and incompetent government.
“Had they been discerning, they would have known that it is to the credit of the state and its government that a hospital of such significance and impact is located in the state and would not have desperately sought to diminish this for petty political reason.”
Nehikhare further said: “It is particularly laughable and ridiculous that Cyril Oshiomhole, the son of the former governor of the state, Adams Aliu Oshiomhole, is the one making these unfounded claims, lamenting about a non-existent structural defect.
“It was his father who, as governor, superintended the construction of the Edo Specialist Hospital, where a section of the building collapsed due to structural defects, killing, at least, two innocent Edo citizens.
“For someone with such a history, it is only hypocritical to point fingers at the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, disparaging the fully functional and operational facility where no lives have been lost when his father’s greed and selfishness led to the death of innocent people. He therefore lacks any moral standing to do.
“Or does Cyril Oshiomhole think we have forgotten in a hurry how his father, Adams Oshiomhole, as governor, brought the then President Muhammadu Buhari to commission an empty Edo Specialist Hospital without facilities or personnel?
“Or how his father went to Lagos to hire equipments and put on display for the commissioning of the Edo Specialist Hospital and how in the evening of the commissioning, loaded a truck with the rented equipments and returned same to the company located on Agege Motor Road, in Lagos and placed the hospital under lock and key?
“Does a person from such a deceitful and wicked lineage have the moral fiber to criticise or describe a functional, operational and world-class hospital, renowned as one of the best in South-South region as with structural defect?
“We urge Cyril Oshiomhole and the Okpebholo-led government to bury their heads in shame, while appreciating the impact and transformation that has happened at the Stella Obasanjo Hospital under the sterling leadership of the immediate past governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki.”
