Rivers State Government has been criticized for abandoning Buguma General Hospital after destroying it for the purpose of renovating it in 2016.
The Kalabari Indigenous Movement (KIM), in a statement signed by Sepiribo Douglas, its President-General, said abandoning the hospital for 3 years is a clear evil on the part of the state government on the people of Buguma and Asari-Toru Local Government Area as a whole.
According to the group, “What will it take the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, to complete the renovation of the Buguma General Hospital, which was the only available hospital for the people of Buguma City and Asalga as a whole?
“In the year 2016, the Buguma General Hospital was disorganized, destroyed, for the sake of renovation; and its renovation process was made random freezes for no tangible reason; just as the Buguma Fish Farm was destroyed, highjacked, and left reached until it became history.
“For about four(4) years now, a settlement like Buguma City finds it very difficult to attain good medical attention, due to the destruction and highjacking of her only existing medical hope(Buguma City General Hospital)
“The Royal stools/Traditional leaders of Buguma City are cowardly silent to this barbaric act by the government of Nyesom Wike/Ipalibo Banigo(PDP led government in Rivers State). The Political Representatives of Buguma City/Asalga took the same cowardice path. The Buguma Internal Affair Society(BIAS) also holds the same cowardice step. The youth bodies/organizations in Buguma/Asari-Toru LGA are also rolling along as cowards.
“But our people are dying every day and night, due to no assured means to admit a patient, or to admit any health situation beyond malaria, and typhoid.
“The health centre in Buguma is below standard, no basic or proper facility to conduct anything when in a critical situation.
“The Ido Community Health Center is as porous as the Buguma City Health Center, because of no facility, no constant medical professionalist(doctor/nurse). Not even a doctor or nurse to check on or admit patients the moment it is 7 pm”
The group threatened to lead a protest to the government house, Port Harcourt, while calling on governor Nyesom Wike and the Rivers State Government, to urgently give attention to the renovation of Buguma General Hospital.
The group added: “We can not allow this tribal governance to continue in Rivers State. Our people have died carelessly within this duration of the abandonment of the Buguma General Hospital, and it is not listenable or bearable any longer”