The Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, on Wednesday said that, as part of his administration’s commitment to primary healthcare delivery, pregnant women were delivered free of charge, get a ‘birth pack’, plus N500 (Five hundred Naira).
Ikpeazu spoke while fielding questions from a team of Channels Television anchors on its flagship programme, Sunrise.
The Governor, while blaming paucity of funds for some of the challenges confronting primary healthcare delivery, argued that its post-natal policy for indigent mothers was commendable as “it is not the role of government to pay people to make babies”.
He added, in response to further proddings, that N500 was a significant sum of money in the life of an indigent mother, as “that could at least pay her way home from the hospital.”
Read also: Abia, Ekiti, Lagos most expensive states to buy fuel in September Governor Ikpeazu also spoke on what his administration was doing to manage security challenges in the State. He noted that, alongside hunters, palm wine tappers had also been integrated into the intelligence gathering teams.
He said, “Within the context of Ebubeagu, we have hunters and palm wine tappers in various communities who have been co-opted into the intelligence gathering teams.
“We have been intentional about protection of lives and property and that is why Abia State is one of the most peaceful states in the country