Apparently satisfied with the free medical programme organised by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) across the four Ogoni local government areas of Rivers State, medical practitioners in the state under the auspices of Ogoni Doctors Forum (OGF) have stressed the need for the agency to be adequately funded to successfully carry out remediation of oil spill impacted sites in Ogoniland.
A consultant family physician and coordinator of the HYPREP’s medical outreach in the four local government areas of Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme, Dr Barile Ikpae Edward, who spoke on behalf of OGF at Nchia General Hospital, Ogale Eleme recently said the agency needed better funding to be able to accomplish its core mandate of remediation and provision of livelihoods for the Ogoni people.
He said the provision of healthcare services to the people by HYPREP came at the most auspicious time, considering that Ogoniland had been seriously devastated, adding that what the people needed most at the moment were good health, water and sanitation to cushion the effects of such devastation.
While thanking HYPREP for the free health programme, Edward said it had gone a long way to address the healthcare needs of the beneficiaries, especially those who underwent surgeries, noting tha the benefits could never be quantified in monetary terms, as some of them would have spent as much as N250,000 for such surgeries.
He disclosed that at the end of the exercise, the doctors performed over 45 surgeries on the people across the four local government areas in Ogoniland while over 4,000 benefitted from the healthcare programme.
The Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Dr Marvin Dekil, who was visibly elated, thanked the medical team for a job well done.
While drawing the curtain for the event at Gokana General Hospital, Terabor, Dekil assured that the healthcare programme, which was the first of the health impact study and emergency measures would continue in the nearest future and promised that HYPREP would now shift its attention to the provision of water to the people.
The project coordinator, who spoke through HYPREP’s Head of Communications, Mr Isa Wasa Francis assured that the Federal Government would continue to implement programmes that would positively touch the lives of the Ogoni people particularly in the implementation of the UNEP Report.
“We have started with health. The next phase is the provision of water to the people”,he said. Dekil commended the sponsors of the project, stakeholders, traditional rulers, youths, community leaders and women for their support.

Donatus Ebi