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Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has commissioned the remodelled and fully equipped 105-bed Omoku Zonal Hospital in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, describing the facility as another step towards improving access to quality healthcare across the state.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony on Friday, Fubara said healthcare remained one of the priorities of his administration, stressing that while lost wealth could be recovered, regaining lost health was often far more difficult.
“If you lose wealth, you have lost nothing, because so long as you’re alive, opportunity might come back and you might gain what you have lost. If you lose your health, you have lost something. It’s not an easy thing to regain lost health,” the governor said.
Fubara noted that protecting lives, providing essential services and ensuring access to healthcare were among the fundamental responsibilities of government. He explained that the strategic location of the hospital meant it would serve a wider population beyond Omoku, including communities in Egbema, Ndoni, Ahoada and other parts of Rivers West Senatorial District.
“This facility is not just for Omoku. It is a facility that will also cater for the people of Egbema. It can also cater for the people of Ndoni, in serious cases. It can even take care of some part of people in this other side of Ahoada,” he said.
The governor appealed to residents, traditional rulers, chiefs and youths to protect the hospital and its equipment from vandalism and theft. He said the need for a functional health facility in Omoku was particularly important given the area’s growing importance as an oil and gas hub.
“We need a good health service at this point in Omoku, considering the kind of developments that are coming up here. This is the oil and gas hub of our dear state,” Fubara said.
He also maintained that his administration would continue to complete projects to acceptable standards, while urging the media and members of the public to verify information before circulating reports concerning government projects.
The Oba of Ogbaland, Dr. Nwachukwu Nnam Obuoha Obi III, who inaugurated the hospital, commended Fubara for what he described as tangible development across the area.
The monarch pointed to the recently inaugurated Elele-Omoku dual-carriageway and the completed Ahoada-Egbema road as examples of projects that had increased government presence in the area.
He also took exception to the description of the facility as merely a “remodelled” hospital, arguing that completing an abandoned project amounted to building it.
“I am not comfortable with those words, the choice of words. If you have started to build a house and you could not complete it, you have not done the job. He who completes a house is he who has built the house,” the monarch said, thanking the governor for “building us a hospital.”
The Permanent Secretary of the Rivers State Ministry of Health, Dr. Vincent Wachukwu, said the three-storey facility would serve as a secondary healthcare and referral centre for primary and secondary health facilities across Rivers West.
According to Wachukwu, the hospital will particularly serve communities in Ahoada East, Ahoada West, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Emohua and parts of Ikwerre Local Government Areas.
He disclosed that healthcare attendance in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni had increased by more than 200 per cent within three years, rising from about 58,914 patients to nearly 225,400 as of December 2025. He added that deliveries, skilled birth attendance and antenatal care visits also recorded about 20 per cent growth.
The hospital is equipped with outpatient clinics, a pharmacy, accident and emergency unit, surgical theatres, laboratories, intensive care and newborn intensive care units, as well as paediatric, obstetrics and gynaecology wards.
Other facilities include radiology services, private wards, a laundry, mortuary, kitchen and cafeteria, recreational garden, generator house, parking space for about 100 vehicles and accommodation for staff.
Wachukwu said the government also provided a 500kVA transformer, 350kVA and 150kVA generating sets, alongside a 90kVA solar power system supported by inverter batteries.
He explained that the facility would provide affordable secondary healthcare while also creating opportunities for professional development, clinical training and medical student postings.
The hospital, he added, is expected to strengthen healthcare delivery and improve maternal, newborn and child health outcomes across the Orashi region.
