By Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri

The Managing Director of the North East Development Commission, Mohammed Goni Alkali has said that the commission is currently reconstructing the Maiduguri eye and dental hospital to accommodate more patients especially the Internally Displaced Persons in the state.

Alkali stated this during an inspection of the NEDC’s projects within the Maiduguri metropolis on Monday.

He noted that the main aim of rehabilitating the hospital is to decongest it so that the victims of the Boko Haram insurgency from the remote areas will have access to eye and dental care.

According to Alkali, the commission will provide medical equipment needed in the hospital, in addition to staff training to enhance better treatment of patients with serious cases.

“For the eye and dental hospital, we have told you that, we are going to renovate the whole place and provide some facilities”.

“As you can see now some of the facilities have started coming up like the staff quarters and so on and so forth. We were in the warehouse and you have seen that most of the equipment from which we’re giving them has been delivered”.

“By the grace of God, during the first quarter of next year, we hope to finish the renovation and give them all the equipment they needed, so that the hospital would be a centre of excellence,” he said.

The MD expressed satisfaction with the progress of work on the ongoing reconstruction/rehabilitation of the Maiduguri eye and dental hospital and that of the NEDC headquarters at the post office area in the Maiduguri metropolis.

He further explained that the NEDC’s plan to separate the state headquarters from the main office and some other facilities is to serve the community effectively.

He assured that the commission is working to improve the living conditions of people in the North-East region in the areas of infrastructure, education, health, and agriculture among other interventions, particularly, for the victims of Boko Haram violence by alleviating their sufferings.