After 66 years of milking dry the oil and gas resources in Oloibiri where oil was first discovered in commercial quantity in Bayelsa State in 1956, Shell Petroleum Development Company ( SPDC) has at last built a health facility in the area.
Inhabitants of Oloibiri community have been living in squalor, penury amidst terrible health hazards following. its abandonment by the SPDC.
After much pressure from stakeholders , the multinational oil company has built and inaugurated a multimillion health facility known as the Oloibiri Health Programme (OHP).
The Oloibiri Health Programme which was commissioned on Thursday by the Bayelsa Governor Douye Diri and Country chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Osagie Okunbor and other top SPDC officials included Oloibiri Health Campus of Oloibiri Town, the Drug Distribution Center at Emeyal 11, a 400-metre Oloibiri access road to the health Campus, and the Ogbia Safe maternal and infant Care Programme.
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In his speech at the event, Okunbor noted that the health programme depicts a deliberate suite of health projects that aim to achieve three broad objectives of promoting universal health coverage, enhance social determinants of health and institutionalize and share lessons learnt for replication and country wide adoption through the establishment of a knowledge management center.
In his goodwill message, the Chair, board of directors of the Oloibiri Health Programme, Prof. Dimie Ogoina noted that from inception in 2015, the OHP has invested in improving universal health coverage and health systems strengthening ,social determinants of health human capacity development in the Ogbia Local Government Area.
In his remarks at the event, Governor Diri who applauded SPDC for its intervention in the health sector noted that the gesture has complemented the efforts of his administration in the health sector
He urged other firms operating in the state to emulate SPDC and tasked the oil giant to replicate the gesture in other senatorial districts.
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Besides its importance in the discovery of the first oil in commercial quantity, the governor says Oloibiri Community is also known to be the birth place of the Ijaw legend, the late Isaac Adaka Boro.
“Let me appreciate SPDC and its partners for prioritising health care in the state by initiating the OHP.
“This is a laudable development because it will go a long way in complementing the various steps and policies we have introduced to meet the health needs of our citizens in Ogbia Local Government Area”. , said governor Diri who urged Oloibiri people to take the health center seriously and ensure that it is put into good use for the betterment of humanity.
In his remarks, King Charles Owaba, the paramount ruler of Ogbia Kingdom who lamented how Oloibiri had been abandoned for years by Shell tasked the oil giant to step up its efforts to ameliorate the adverse impact of oil exploration on the environment and people if the area.
Represented at the event by Ibiroma Ikuli, King Owaba noted that Ogbia Kingdom deserves the best from SPDC and the Bayelsa State Government as the place where oil was first discovered in commercial quantity in 1956.
