Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, has restated his administration’s readiness to sponsor five dumb and deaf children from the state to India for treatment.

Speaking while receiving the Managing Director of Primus International Super Speciality Hospital, India, Mr. Nitin Dewan, at Governor’s Office, Uyo, today, Akpabio said the successful treatment of the patients would convince Akwa Ibom people on the need for the state to partner the hospital.

He directed “the state Commissioner of Health to select five children born deaf and dumb and send to Primus Super Speciality Hospital, India, for treatment where a mechanism would be planted on them to enable them to speak and hear.”

The governor further said that the state government would partner and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for surgeons from the hospital to assist in the specialist hospital in the state, which is on-going at Itam in Uyo.

He explained that the specialist hospital in the state would have a mini specialist quarters and mini hotels in the hospital premises for the medical team. He noted that the Indian hospital is starting a branch in Cairo and Abuja, saying that with the visit of the surgeons to Akwa Ibom, something good would come out in the health sector.

The governor hinted that the specialist hospital in the state to be completed next year would be well built to check ecapital flight of Akwa Ibom people to India.

Mr. Dewan, who was accompanied by Chief Research Officer of the hospital, Pinto Jayraj, and International Business Development Officer, Ramech Chaudhary, said their visit to the state was to contribute in the health sector of the state and country, and thanked the state governor for the opportunity given to them to visit the state.

Earlier, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Bassey, had told Governor Akpabio that the team had gone round some hospitals in the state and was impressed with the quality and state of hospitals.

•Photo: Gov Akpabio in a warm handshake with Mr. Nitin Dewan, Managing Director of Primus Super Specialty Hospital, India, today at the Governor’s Office, Uyo.