Be wary of appeals for donations, Ogun Government warns residents

The Ogun Government has warned residents of the state to ignore any appeals by faceless individuals or organisations soliciting support to fund government facilities or projects.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, issued the warning at a news briefing in Abeokuta.

The warning was coming in the wake of an online message by a group soliciting donations from the public for the reconnection of the state hospital, Ota to the national grid and daily puchase of diesel to power its generating set.

The commissioner said the hospital was not indebted to the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) or disconnected from the national grid.

She said that the hospital had always been on 11KVA transformer with a monthly payment of N500,000 to IBEDC.

She also said that efforts were being made to connect the facility to a 33KVA transformer to achieve more hours of power supply and reduce the amount spent on fuelling the generating set.

According to him, the state government would not stoop so low to asking a group to help it raise funds into a personal account.

“No hospital under the purview of the Hospitals Management Board (HMB) owes IBEDC and none of our facilities has been disconnected from the national grid.

“We are only making efforts to move the state hospital to the 33KVA transformer from 11KVA transformer that would help achieve about 12 hours power supply daily.

“The public should ignore the calls for donations from any private organisations that want to enrich themselves in the name of helping the government,” Coker said.

Also, the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Toafeek Somade, said that a group approached the facility with the intent to help it in any area of
challenge.

Somade said that the group was advised to channel its request to the HMB and also specify the area it wanted to support.

He said that arrangement had been concluded with IBEDC to connect the hospital to the 33KVA transformer within the next few weeks.