The Speaker, House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, says he will continue to support health facilities in his Surulere I Federal Constituency, Lagos to further impact on healthcare delivery.
Gbajabiamila made the promise on Saturday when he visited Gbaja Maternal and Child Care Hospital in Surulere.
There, he spent time with the new babies born on the New Year and their mothers.
Received by Madewa Adebayo, the Medical Director of the facility and other staff, the Speaker commended management of the hospital for working hard to improve healthcare delivery in the area.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Baby Lateefat, a female, was the First Baby of the Year at the facility.
She was born at exactly 12am on Saturday and weighed 3.2kg at birth.
Also, Okotie Babies, a set of triplets, were born shortly after the first baby at the same hospital.
Gbajabiamila congratulated the mother of the first baby, Latifat Jimoh, for the safe delivery and the family for the “great gift from God”.
The Speaker then gave them various gifts, including cash, bags of rice, diapers to the baby and the family.
Gbajabiamila later went round to see other babies born in the facility and spent time with them and their parents.
Congratulating Helen Okotie, mother of the triplets, the Speaker presented gifts to the Okotie babies, all females, and promised to support the family.
In an interview with NAN, Jimoh thanked Gbajabiamila for the visit.
Jimoh, who could not hold back tears of joy, said she was pleasantly surprised by the Speaker’s visit and the love he had shown to the baby and the family.
She said: “I am positively overwhelmed.
“I do not know what to say for now other than to thank the Speaker for the visit and the love he has shown to my family.
“May God continue to bless him to do much more for the people of Surulere.”
Also, Maruf Jimoh, father of the baby, told NAN that he was excited about the Speaker’s visit, adding that he and his family felt loved by the gesture.
He said: “I feel so excited; I feel a sense of belonging as a citizen of this country.
“I feel much loved by the gesture from the Speaker.
“I am grateful to God for touching the heart of the Speaker to embark on this kind of thing.
“I appreciate him and pray to God to always be with him.”
In her reaction, Okotie thanked Gbajabiamila for the gifts and the visit.
Okotie, who just graduated from the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, however, appealed to the Speaker to always support the family.
She said: “I thank Speaker Gbajabiamila for this great gesture and I want to appeal to him to support the family.
“I graduated from Yaba College of Technology last year, awaiting youth service.
“We are happy about the coming of the triplets, but we will need the Speaker to support us.
“We want scholarship for them when they start schooling and we pray for Speaker Gbajabiamila to do this and bless others in this area.”
The Speaker, later embarked on an inspection tour of ongoing projects he facilitated for his constituency in Surulere.
Some of the projects he inspected to ascertain their completion level and quality were the expansion of Babs Animashaun Road and Bridge, rehabilitation of Randle Avenue and work on the upgrade of Gbaja Primary Healthcare Centre at Iyun Road in Surulere.
He also inspected the ongoing work at a hostel at the University of Lagos, his alma mater.
Commenting, during his inspection visit to Babs Animashaun Road, Gbajabiamila commended the pace of work on the project as well as its quality.
He, however, urged the contractor handling the project to further expedite work to meet the delivery deadline.
He said: “I want you to continue to work at the pace at which you are working.
“I can see and imagine the quality of work going on here and I hope your June completion date is realisable.
“If you can move it back to May, it is even better because this is something we promised the people of this neighbourhood and we need to deliver in good time.
“Once again, I commend you for what you have done, it looks good.
“I am sure by the time you are done, it will even look better.”