By Nathan Nwakamma
Yenagoa – The Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), says it has not abandoned the construction of the 200-bed capacity Emergency/Infectious Diseases hospital aimed at strengthening the capacity to fight COVID-19 in Bayelsa.
The assurance followed criticism by Gov. Douye Diri on the slow pace of work on the facility on Thursday.
Eni, the Italian parent company of NAOC in a brief email response on the lull in the pace of work, attributed the delays to ‘panning of civil construction and medical system’.
The statement from an Eni Spokesperson reads: Site preparation works have been completed.
“Construction works will resume in the coming days, following a short lapse to ensure the appropriate level of planning of civil construction and medical systems.”
The assurance followed expectations that a speedy completion of the facility would increase the less than 200-bed isolation capacity in Bayelsa with confirmed COVID-19 cases standing at 318,137 with 163 recoveries and 18 deaths.
Gov. Diri alongside Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum, and other dignitaries had performed the ground breaking ceremony of the facility on May 2.
Diri, however, expressed dissatisfaction at the slow pace of work more than two months after the ground breaking ceremony at a public gathering on Thursday in Yenagoa.
The governor called on NAOC and its Joint Venture partners to expedite action on the project located at Igbogene, a suburb of Yenagoa.
He expressed concerns that nothing tangible seemed to have been done on the site after its foundation was laid more than two months ago as the construction site remained desolate.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)-Agip Joint Venture, on May 2, performed the ground breaking of the 200-bed capacity infectious diseases hospital for the South-South Zone.
Mr Lorenzo Fiorillo, Managing Director, Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), had on May 2 said that the outbreak of the Coronavirus had put a lot of strain on healthcare system and personnel globally.
Fiorillo who spoke through Mr Macwon Jitubo, Head of Community Relations, NAOC, said that the company remained sympathetic to the threat posed by the Coronavirus resulting to millions of deaths worldwide.
“Eni, the parent company of NAOC, considers people to be at the core of its culture and fundamental to its business, aware that creation of reciprocal values is possible through the sharing of objectives.
“We are certain that the Oil and Gas industry as a whole shares in these values.
“It is for this reason that we are here today at this difficult period to perform the ceremony which will engender a valuable medical asset to the South-South region of the country,” he said at the event.
(NAN)
