APC rejects planned demolition of Edo hospital

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State on Monday asked the state government to drop the planned demolition of the Benin Central Hospital in the state capital.

In a statement issued by its Assistant Publicity Secretary in the state, Victor Osheobo, the party rejected the plan to build an ultra-modern motor park at the site of the hospital.

It described the move as part of a plot to ground the state again.

The Edo State Commissioner for Communications and Orientation, Andrew Emwanta, told journalists recently the state government would relocate the hospital to the Stella Obasanjo hospital to pave the way for the transformation of the 100-year-old Central Hospital.

He said the Stella Obasanjo Hospital was being expanded to deliver quality health services to the people of the state.

But the APC insisted that the planned demolition of the central hospital was weird and unacceptable.

The statement read: “There is wisdom in the reason advanced by the government for the proposed demolition of the hospital which is to make way for an ultra-modern motor park to decongest the city centre and ultimately generate additional revenue for the state.

“We label such thinking not only as weird and evil but also unacceptable.

“This is because no right-thinking government will prefer to replace a viable health facility, which it should equip and staff, to better cater for the well-being of the people, with a motor park.

“The APC has it on good authority that the hospital has been stripped bare while bulldozers are already lined up for the demolition exercise.

“Our party will not allow these unpatriotic efforts of the government to continue because potentially it destroys the fortunes of generations of Edo children.

“We also demand an immediate and complete cessation of all MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding) or partnerships the Edo State government has entangled itself with, to warrant this sinister move.

“We want to place Governor Godwin Obaseki and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government in particular on notice that the APC will hold them responsible for the extent of their complicity if they attempt to remain silent in the wake of this glaring and dubious attempt to shortchange the people of Edo by swindling them out of their legitimate inheritance.”