The Ebonyi State Government has resolved to move the faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of its University from its present location in Abakaliki to Uburu in Ohaozara Local Government Area of the State, from where the State Governor, David Umahi, hails.
This resolution was reached on Monday in Abakaliki during a joint meeting of government with the management of the institution.
The decision was conveyed to journalists by the Commissioner for Health, Daniel Umezurike, at a joint press briefing on the outcome of Monday’s State Executive Council meeting, led by Senator Emmanuel Onwe, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation.
Umezurike explained that the move was necessitated by the need to take the important faculty to the new location where Government has found adequate space to establish a befitting Teaching Hospital for it.
Recall that following the ceding of the former Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki to the Federal Government in 2012 to become a Federal Medical Centre, and its recent re-designation as the Teaching Hospital for the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ikwo, the State University was left with no Teaching Hospital of its own.
Recall also that the establishment of the University’s faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, shortly after the State’s creation in 1996, displaced Abakaliki High School, popularly known as PRESCO, which was moved to an inconvenient location.
With the present resolve to move the faculty, the School is expected to move back to its original location.
Umezurike also noted that the existence of an already functional State School of Nursing and Midwifery in Uburu also added impetus to the decision, indicating the resolve of Government to also establish a Pharmacy department for the University.
The meeting, according to Umezurike, also further resolved to expand the courses offered in the University through the establishment of a faculty of Engineering and Environmental Studies to cater for the teeming number of prospective engineers within and outside the State.
The Commissioner for Education, Sabinus Nwankwagu, while briefing journalists further, also revealed the directive of the State Executive Council for the immediate relocation of the Education Faculty of the University from its temporary site in Ishieke to its permanent campus at Ezzamgbo.
Nwankwagu explained that the movement, which should be completed within one month, was to enable the displaced Izzi High School, the original owner of the location, to resettle from its temporary site.
He further revealed that the State Government has approved N500 million for upgrading of facilities in the State University and the College of Education, adding that a special committee has been given the charge of the fund.
Meanwhile, Onwe has conveyed the State Executive Council’s grave concern over the spate of cult activities across the State, even among the elites.
He therefore revealed the resolve of Umahi to fully employ all relevant Government apparatus to fight the menace to extinction in the State.
He noted that Government in no distant time would publicly expose all cultists, including those within its fold, for adequate prosecution, adding that there would be no sacred cow in the fight.