Akwa Ibom government has rejected the controversial hospital equipment said to have been donated to a cottage hospital in Awa, Onna local government area of the State.
Dominic Ukpong, commissioner for health, who made this known while inspecting the equipment, said it was wrong for “anybody or philanthropist to have made the donation without following laid down rules and procedures.
It was gathered that the equipment were dumped in the cottage hospital by unknown persons.
Last week, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission ( ICPC) allegedly recovered some hospital equipment in a warehouse in Ukana, Essien Udim local government area of the state.
According to the commission, the hospital equipment were part of a constituency project allegedly undertaken by former senate minority leader, Godswill Akpabio but were never delivered to the hospital.
Ukpong, who confirmed that the equipment “were brought in last Wednesday without the knowledge of the medical superintendent” said the state government has decided to set up a committee to investigate the matter.
“We started the rehabilitation of this hospital last year and we are almost about to commission it. And all the equipment for the hospital is stocked in the warehouse. We expect that anybody who wants to assist us should ask of areas of our needs to avoid deplication.
“We have three trailers and a busload of equipment we have yet to ascertain the name of the contractor but fortunately we have the name of the man who was in charge of the equipment. We shall ascertain from him of the contractor and the person behind it”
“What we have seen it is not what we planned for in this hospital, for instance, the manual beds, the state government has brought in automated beds in line with what is in place in other hospitals across the state.
Oba Alexius, an official of the ICPC, who also visited the hospital, said he was directed to ascertain the type of the equipment, who brought them and where the equipment came from.
