Asaba
Director-General of the Delta State Contributory Health Commission, Dr Ben Nkechika has said that the state government was providing health insurance to internally displaced persons in the state because their means of livelihood have been eroded by the ravaging flood.
Nkechika stated this at a joint press conference in Asaba with the Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, and explained that the state government was determined to provide access to quality health services to all residents of the state irrespective of their socio-economic status and geographical location.
He noted that with the enrollment of the internally displaced persons into the Contributory Health Insurance, they would have access to free quality health care for one year even after leaving the camps.
According to him, the Commission is an agency of government, established to implement the mandatory Delta State Contributory Health Scheme which is a health care financing programme geared towards ensuring access to quality health care services for all residents of Delta state.
While adding that the programme started in January 2017 and till date has over 1.2 million enrollees which is the highest in the country, the Commissioner said that the scheme is powered by 500 health facilities both government and private health care facilities accredited to provide health services under the scheme
In his own part, the Commissioner for information Mr Charles Aniagwu has accused Deputy President of the Senate and Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ovie Omo-Agege of sponsoring local government pensioners protests against Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and the state government.
He said that despite the efforts of the state government in assisting the local governments to defray their outstanding pension liabilities, Omo-Agege and the APC were bent on sponsoring protests on the matter to score cheap political points.
Mr Aniagwu urged the general public to be wary of the protesters as they were obviously playing the cards of their political sponsors.
He said that some of the retirees appreciate the effort of the state government in helping to clear the outstanding pension liabilities and remarked that a certain woman leader of the APC was being used to blackmail the governor and paint him in bad light.
According to him, we have it on good authority that the All Progressives Congress (APC) have again engineered a protest that is billed to take place on Monday.
He challenged Deltans to ask them questions on where they worked and who is supposed to pay their pensions even though the state government had continued to be magnanimous in helping the local governments.
He said the Okowa administration would remain focused in delivering on its promises to the people and commended Deltans for their support.
