Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has unveiled a remodelled and fully furnished 105-bed zonal hospital in Omoku, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, reaffirming his administration’s commitment to improving access to quality healthcare.
Fubara commissioned the facility on Friday, describing it as a strategic healthcare centre that would serve not only residents of Omoku but also communities across Egbema, Ndoni and parts of Ahoada.
He said healthcare remained one of the fundamental responsibilities of government, alongside the protection of lives and property and the provision of essential services.
The governor stressed the importance of investing in healthcare, noting that lost wealth could be recovered while lost health was far more difficult to regain.
“If you lose wealth, you have lost nothing, because so long as you’re alive, opportunity might come back and you might gain what you have lost. If you lose your health, you have lost something. It’s not an easy thing to regain health lost,” he said.
Fubara said the location of the hospital was particularly significant because of Omoku’s status as an oil and gas hub and the development expected in the area.
“We need a good health service at this point in Omoku, considering the kind of developments that are coming up here. This is the oil and gas hub of our dear state,” he said.
He explained that the hospital was designed to provide healthcare services beyond its immediate host community.
“This facility is not just for Omoku. It is a facility that will also cater for the people of Egbema. It can also cater for the people of Ndoni, in serious cases. It can even take care of some part of the people on this other side of Ahoada,” he explained.
The governor appealed to residents and community leaders to protect the facility and its equipment from vandalism and theft, urging them to take ownership of the project.
He also said his administration remained committed to delivering projects to standards that could withstand public scrutiny. Fubara cautioned against the circulation of unverified reports concerning government projects.
The Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Health, Dr Vincent Wachukwu, described the hospital as a secondary healthcare facility strategically positioned to serve the Orashi region.
Wachukwu disclosed that attendance at health facilities across Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni had increased by more than 200 per cent in three years, rising from about 58,914 patients to nearly 225,400 by December 2025.
He added that deliveries, skilled birth attendance and the completion of four antenatal-care visits had also risen by about 20 per cent, particularly in Omoku and Okwuzi.
The hospital has outpatient clinics, a pharmacy, ECG and ultrasound rooms, accident and emergency services, a dedicated surgical theatre and radiology services on the ground floor, among other facilities.
The Special Guest of Honour, the Oba of Ogbaland, Dr Nwachukwu Obi III, who commissioned the hospital, commended Fubara for what he described as tangible development projects in the area.
The monarch recalled that the Elele-Omoku road, commissioned earlier on Thursday, had been in a terrible condition for many years. He said the governor’s intervention had changed residents’ perception that they were disconnected from the rest of Rivers State.
He also praised the completion of the Ahoada-Egbema road and the commissioning of the 33.5-kilometre Elele-Omoku dual-carriageway.
“It was a place where we did not feel the presence of government, nor did we know that we are part of Rivers State,” the monarch lamented.
Speaking on the hospital, Obi said completing the project was what made it possible to properly describe it as a hospital built for the people.
“I am not comfortable with those words, the choice of words. If you have started to build a house and you could not complete it, you have not done the job. He who completes a house is he who has built the house.
“That is why I’m comfortable to say thank you for building us a hospital,” he said.
The monarch said the facility would help address healthcare needs in communities within the area, particularly given the region’s oil and gas activities. He added that residents had faced several health challenges which had contributed to unnecessary deaths.
