Igbo Eze North Local Government Council of Enugu State says it paid the hospital bills of over 60 indigent residents of the council area that have different terminal illnesses but could not afford their hospital bills.
The Executive Chairman of the council, Chief Uwakwe Ezeja, made the disclosure on Friday when the tripartite committee of the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Civil Society Organisation (CSOs), visited the council on a good governance tour.
Ezeja said that prominent among them was the case of one Mrs Cordelia Ezeugwu who had brain tumor and was admitted at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, but could not pay her bill of N600, 000 that was charged by the hospital.
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“The essence of the gesture is to motivate leaders of the council on the need to do service to humanity.
“This is a very large local government area with 20 electoral wards and 119 government primary schools. We have different tribes in this council, the Igbo speaking, Idoma and Igala speaking part.
“Having served as NLC chairman in the state for eight years, payment of workers salary is my priority. We spend 85 per cent of our allocation on the payment of workers’ salaries and allowances.
“We have 24 ongoing and completed projects, among which are the reconstruction of a high court building, construction of pavilion and rehabilitation of some boreholes among others,’’ he said.
Ezeja said that he was paying over 300 youths in the council to reduce poverty and gave scholarships to some indigent students that could not afford their school fees among whom is Christian Ugwu, a second year engineering student at University of Nigeria Nsukka.
He added that he created access roads all over the council so that the people who were predominantly farmers, could access their various farmlands and easily evacuate agricultural produce.
In his remarks, the state Chairman of NLC, Mr Virginus Nwobodo said the committee embarked on a good governance tour to find out the level of development in various councils.
Nwobodo said that they did not come to witch-hunt anybody but to know the projects they had embarked on since they became autonomous.
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He said that they came to ascertain the level of empowerment to the youths, women and children and above all, the scorecard of the council.
In a vote of thanks, the Acting Vice-President Zone C of the NUJ, Mr Ken Ofoma, commended the council chairman for saving the lives of indigent’s members of the council.
Ofoma urged him to continue in his good deeds, as one good turm deserves another. (NAN)
