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Abia State has broken ground on its first general hospital in the Ohanku-Ndoki area of Ukwa East Local Government Area, Governor Alex Otti announced Thursday, describing the project as a direct response to what he called decades of inadequate secondary healthcare in one of the state’s more underserved zones.
Otti said the facility would spare residents the burden of long-distance travel for treatment and improve the speed of emergency medical response in the area.
Without specifying a completion date or construction cost, he positioned the hospital as a signal of his administration’s intent to extend quality healthcare beyond urban centres.
The land for the project was donated by the community’s traditional ruler, Eze Chibuzor Chinyere, a contribution the governor publicly acknowledged, calling it an example of community-driven development. Otti told residents that other outstanding requests put to the state government remained under review, subject to available resources.
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Beyond healthcare, the governor used the occasion to speak to the area’s economic prospects. He said his administration was actively looking at proposals for a Free Trade Zone, the reactivation of dormant state-owned assets, and expanded investment in agro-processing, with palm oil production singled out as a priority sector.
He said those discussions were already at an advanced stage of consideration within government, though no investment figures or partner details were disclosed.
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Otti also revisited an earlier attempt by his administration to pursue a seaport for Abia State.
He said talks had been opened with Chinese partners but stalled over technical obstacles, specifically a distance of 19.5 nautical miles to the high seas and the scale of dredging work that would be required. He maintained that the government had not closed the door on the idea.
On roads, he said preliminary scoping work had begun on Ohanku Road in Aba, the main artery linking the urban corridor to the Ohanku-Ndoki community. He warned that the road, along with the Port Harcourt Road, would demand heavy sub-structural investment given the soil conditions underlying both routes.
No contractor was named for the hospital project, and no delivery schedule was provided at the ceremony.
