Bill to establish Aso Villa Hospital passes first reading at reps

The house of representatives has passed for first reading a bill seeking to establish the Aso Villa Hospital.

The bill, which seeks to upgrade the status of the clinic at the presidential villa to a hospital, was introduced at Tuesday’s plenary session.

TheCable previously reported that the Aso Rock clinic lacks basic medical equipment and drugs such as syringe, paracetamol, cotton wool.

Aisha, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, had also lamented the poor state of the facility.

The house of representatives once set up a committee to probe how the N10.9 billion approved for the clinic from 2015 to 2017 was spent.

But Jalal Arabi, permanent secretary, state house, told the committee the clinic got only N3.5 billion out of the entire sum in those years.

He also attributed the lack of drugs at Aso Rock clinic to free medical treatment by those who are not entitled to it, and that outsiders have been banned from using the facility.

He also said though some of the state house workers did not enlist on the clinic’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), 80 percent of their families enjoy free medical services at the expense of the government.