Residents of Achimbi community in Kwaku ward of Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have raised concerns over the dilapidated state of their primary healthcare centre and the absence of medical personnel.
They lamented that the situation has deprived them of access to basic healthcare services, particularly affecting pregnant women and other vulnerable groups in the community.
Some villagers who spoke when Abuja Metro visited the area on Saturday said the poor condition of the facility has, over the years, forced them to seek medical care in neighbouring communities.
A resident, Alkali Usman, said the community has continued to face serious challenges accessing healthcare due to the neglect of the facility.
According to him, the health centre, which was built years ago under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) intervention with support from the World Bank in collaboration with the FCT Administration, has been left to deteriorate.
He explained that the facility was previously managed by a volunteer from the community, who eventually stopped due to the worsening condition of the building.
‘The roof is damaged and parts of it have been blown off. Whenever it rains, there is no place to admit patients’, he said.
Another resident, Gabriel Audi, said pregnant women in the community now travel to neighbouring Agweh community for antenatal care and delivery.
He noted that repeated appeals by community leaders to the council authorities for the rehabilitation of the facility and deployment of health workers have yielded no results.
‘We have written several times through our village head, but nothing has been done for over eight years’, he said.
A housewife, Mrs. Asabe Yakubu, recounted how she was forced to travel at night on a motorcycle to Agweh to deliver her baby due to the absence of functional healthcare services in the community.
‘It was only God that saved me. My husband had to take me on a motorcycle at night because the health centre here is no longer functional’, she said.
She added that the situation worsened after a volunteer health worker at the facility left the community to pursue further education, leaving the facility abandoned and overgrown with weeds.
The village head, Danjuma Yakubu, described the lack of access to healthcare as a major challenge facing the community.
He said both the health centre and the staff quarters attached to it had fallen into disrepair, with no personnel posted to the facility.
‘The staff quarters are also in a bad state. The roof and ceiling have caved in, and no one can live there’, he said.
He further lamented that the poor state of the road linking Achimbi to neighbouring Zagabutu and Agweh communities has compounded their challenges, especially during the rainy season when residents are often cut off.
‘During the rainy season, we are completely cut off. It is only during the dry season that we try to fix bad portions of the road ourselves to move farm produce’, he added.
The traditional ruler appealed to the Kuje Area Council to urgently rehabilitate the health centre, deploy medical personnel, and fix the access road to the community.
Responding, an official in the Works Department of Kuje Area Council, Mr. Isaac Manasseh, said the council had made provisions in its budget to rehabilitate dilapidated health centres across the area council, including the one in Achimbi.
He added that plans are also underway to recruit medical personnel to man the facilities after rehabilitation.
Manasseh further disclosed that the council had been rehabilitating rural roads and constructing bridges and culverts in parts of the area, noting that a second phase of the project would commence soon.
