Criticisms Against Poor Condition of State House Clinic Unfounded – Reps

The National Assembly on Thursday described criticisms often leveled against the poor condition of medical facilities at the State House Medical Centre as unfounded.
Speaking with newsmen after inspecting facilities at the Medical Centre as part of its oversight function, Hon. Nasiru Sani Zangon Daura, Chairman of the House Committee on Special Duties, who led other members of the Committee on an oversight function in respect of utilisation of the 2016 appropriation, said the health facilities at the medical centre should be commended for the judicious use of the resources released to them.
According to a press statement signed by the State House Deputy Director (information), Abiodun Oladunjoye, Zangon Daura was quoted to have said, “I am happy with what I have seen. The public criticism we keep hearing, there are no drugs in the State House medical centre, there are no this there are no that, despite the fact that it is free service here , things are bound to finish . They have to wait for the releases to come before they can replenish. I think it’s a bit under the belt to grab them by the jugular and say they don’t do this or they don’t do that.”
Welcoming the Reps member to the State House, the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, appreciated the lawmakers for coming to perform their responsibility as elected representatives of the people. He said that since the State House is built with public money, and is not a personal property, it is their duty to ensure that it is properly maintained. He added that they should come periodically to see how the money allocated for its maintenance is utilized as they will be preserving the ‘Symbol of the Nation’.
The Permanent Secretary, State House, Jalal Arabi, had earlier stated that the nature of the responsibilities on the seat of government, enormous at it is, sometimes ad hoc, based on exigencies within and outside the country often put tremendous pressure on the budgetary allocations to the seat of government. He assured that the State House had not introduced any new capital project in the 2017 budget estimates and that only N5,169,581,458.64 out of N11,140,852,016 representing 47.5 percent of the Capital Appropriation had been released till date.
He said that apart from the office of the President and the Vice-President, the State House has five other distinct cost centres. They are State House Headquarters, Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Office of the Chief Security Officer to the President, State House Medical Centre and State House Liaison Office, Lagos.