New Nigerian Newspapers Online Edition

A thirty-bed hospita is to be built for the people of Mbube in Ogoja Local Government Area of Cross River at the cost of 60 million Naira. The initiator of the project, Rev. Father Jake Otonko, said the hospital with the state-of-the art facility would be completed in 2013.

Speaking at a fund raising dinner for the project in Abuja, Otonko said the catchment area of the hospital had a population of over 150,000 people. He said the hospital when completed would comprise an equipped theatre, laboratory, radiography facility and an Administrative block.

He said: “The 25th anniversary of my ordination, God willing comes up in the year 2013. “I am dreaming that the event be marked with a Jubilee Offering of a 30-bed hospital valued at about 60 million Naira, to the people of Mbube Ogoja.

“My religious vows, do not allow for personal and material opulence, hence this lofty dream can only be actulaised by the support of public-spirited individuals. “It is estimated that over 100,000 Nigerians die from maternal related cases annually and this should not be so.

“In 2001, a pregnant woman in the community, in my presence bled to death and nobody was able to render medical help.'' The priest explained that since that incident: ``This passion (building a hospital)had lived in me and the desire is to enhance the quality of people's lives.''

In a speech, the House Committee Chairman on Finance, Hon. John Owan, representing Obubra/Etung of Cross River, lauded the imitative by the clergyman. Owan, an indigene of the area pledged to rally support for the project from public-spirited individuals.

He announced a personal donation of 500,000 Naira and pledged to commit the same amount into the project for the next three years.