N400bn Health Projects: Senate Probe Continues Despite Contractors’ Return to Site, Says Oloriegbe

Sunday Aborisade, Abuja

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, has vowed that the red chamber would continue with the probe of the abandoned N400 billion primary health care projects across the country despite the decision of the contractors to resume work, 16 years after they left the sites.  

Oloriegbe stated this on his verified official twitter handle yesterday.
The Senate had on February 16, after deliberating on a motion sponsored by Oloriegbe, ordered investigation into why the N400bn National Primary Health Centre (NPHC) project, initiated by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, was abandoned.

The upper chamber had directed its committees on Works and Housing, Health and Communicable Disease to carry out a joint investigation into the matter.
However, three weeks after the resolution to Investigate the matter was passed the contractors had started returning to sites with local government authorities receiving medical equipment.

But Oloriegbe wrote on the social media platform: “Alleged 400bn Abandoned National Primary Health Centre Projects: Contractors resume to sites as local government authorities begin to receive medical equipment after I moved the motion to investigate the projects.

“The essence of the motion that sought an investigation into the abandoned N400 billion National Primary Health Centre projects awarded during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo has begun to materialise in a flash.
“It will be recalled that as the Chairman Senate Committee On Health, I moved a motion on 16th of February 2022, on the need to investigate the abandoned health projects which were funded through the monies deducted from the excess crude account of all the 774 LGAs in the country.

“Following this motion, the Senate passed a resolution mandating its committees on Health, Primary Health Care and Communicable Disease, Works and Housing to determine the status of the funds warehoused with the then Bank PHB (now Keystone Bank) and the level of the projects done.

“In a swift reaction to the development, the concerned contractors have however embarked on the penitential voyage by taking remedial steps to mitigate their alleged malfeasance.
“Dreading the outcome of the ongoing investigations, they have started reaching out to the local government authorities whilst expediting corrective measures against their alleged professional misconduct and breach of contract.

“And as part of efforts to address the lapses, the contractors have begun to deploy medical equipment to local government authorities and have evinced a readiness to resume work on the abandoned buildings across the country.

“I am using this avenue to reiterate the resolve of the committees to continue with the investigations.
“The moves of the contractors will not deter us from getting to the root of the matter regarding the projects as we will ensure that Nigerians’ monies are working for them.

“It is important to strengthen the primary health care system because, primary health care is the bedrock of the health system and its optimal functioning will ensure better health outcomes for the Country,” Oloriegbe stated.