The 22-bed primary health centre at Ukya village, in Rubochi ward of Kuje Area Council of the FCT has remained uncompleted for 14 years now.
The centre which was designed to have a theatre and staff quarters is located along the Abaji-Toto road, but the abandoned building is now overgrown with grasses.
Though the health centre is about 80 percent completed, with aluminum roofing, Aso Chronicle learnt that the project has remained unattended to for the past nine years.
Our reporter gathered that the project was initiated by the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) in 2003 through the former chairman of the council, Mr. Danladi Etsu Zhin.
Malam Ibrahim Ishaku, the spokesperson of Ukya community, who conducted our reporter round the health centre, said the project was abandoned at an advanced stage. He said the health centre has been roofed with aluminum zinc, the ceiling fixed and aluminum window frames also fixed.
“But unfortunately, some thieves came in the night to remove some of the aluminum window frames about a year ago because of the bush that has overgrown the structures in the premises,” he said.
He said residents of the community have over the years been facing the problem of lack of a health centre, saying patients mostly travel to Abaji town to receive medical treatment, including pregnant women when they are in labour.
He said since the project was abandoned over nine years ago, he has met several times with some elders of the community and set up a committee, which he said had been visiting the authorities of the council to inform them of the abandoned project.
According to him, he led an eight- man committee that comprised of elders of the community to meet with the past administration of the council, under the former chairman Mr. Shaban Ishaku Tete, and complained to him over the non-completion of the health centre.
He recalled that during the former chairman’s electioneering campaign in 2013 to the community, the village head and some elders of the community also urged him to intensify effort in ensuring that the project was completed.
“But since that time nothing has been done about the health centre,” he said.
Ishaku further told Aso Chronicle that he sometimes mobilise youths of the community to go and clear the bushes that have overgrown the abandoned health centre every year, even as he said he was yet to mobilize them this year.
He added that elders of the community had also complained to the present chairman of the council, Alhaji Abdullahi D. Galadima, during his electioneering campaign to the community early last year, but that they are yet to get any response from him.
“The chairman had assured the community that as soon as he assumed office, he would write to the health secretariat of the FCTA to intimate them about the abandoned health centre, we don’t know if he has been able to do as he promised,” he added.
Aso Chronicle observed that the centre is at the risk of being consumed by fire anytime children hunting for rodents and rabbits decide to set the bushes around it on fire.
The community spokesperson further complained about the abandonment of a one block of three classrooms of the Local Education Authority (LEA) at the community, which he said was under the supervision of the FCT Universal Basic Education (UBEB).
He said the classroom project was also abandoned after the classrooms were roofed, saying windows and doors are yet to be fixed, six years after.
He said the non-completion of the abandoned classrooms project has affected the learning of pupils, and the population of pupils at the school has been increasing, as some pupils come from neighbouring Toto town, Ukya Sabo, Atako and Zokutu to attend school at the community.
“Apart from that, there is another one block of three classrooms which was still at foundation level and that one too was abandoned for almost six years and population of pupils have been increasing because of the strategic location of the school,” Ishaku said.
He therefore appealed to the authorities of the council, under the leadership of Alhaji Abdullahi D. Galadima, to intensify efforts by coming to the aid of the community and liaising with the FCTA Health Secretariat so that the contractor will be mobilized back to site to complete the project and that of the primary school in the community.
However, a former chairman of Kuje area council, Mr. Danladi Etsu Zhin, while speaking with Aso Chronicle regarding the abandoned health care centre, noted that it was during his administration in 2003, he directed that the project to be sited at Ukya village.
He said the abandoned health facility was funded from the deductions that were made from the coffers of the Association of Local Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGON), which he said was a scheme under the former president Olusegun Obasanjo administration, which cut across the 774 local government areas in Nigeria.
“That hospital you are talking about was a scheme initiated by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, where local governments‘ funds were deducted through the umbrella of ALGON, in which I directed that the health centre of the Kuje Area Council be sited at Ukya village,” he said.
He said efforts were made when he was the National publicity secretary of ALGON in order to ensure the contractor completed the project before he left, which he said could not be achieved. he added “but the community would have taken over the centre since it is almost 80 percent completed.”
Also, residents of Dnago community in Yenche ward of Kuje Area Council have complained over prolonged water scarcity in the community.
Spokesperson of the community, Ayuba Daniel, said residents of the community have been facing the challenges of lack of pipe borne water, saying residents only depend on water from a well and stream.
He said the only borehole, which belongs to the community primary school, where residents normally go to fetch water had broken down over a year ago; and women now go to the stream to scoop water from mud wells.
Daniel recalled that the lack of access to potable drinking water forced them to relocate from their former community and reside close to the stream, along Yenche-Gwargwada road, in order to have access to water.
“And even after we relocated to this place which is close to the stream on Yeche-Gwargwada road, over five years ago, the problem of water still lingers as our women have to go to the stream especially at the peak of this dry season,” he said.
Reacting, the Special Adviser to the chairman of the council on Media and Publicity, Haruna Usman, said the council has already awarded a contract for the sinking of a borehole in the community and some other neighbouring villages in the area, saying work will soon commence as soon as contractors are mobilized.
Haruna said he cannot comment on the abandoned health centre at Ukya village, until he consulted with the council chairman.
By: Abubakar Sadiq Isah
Daily Trust News
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