Six Years After Sod-Cutting, Eikwe Polyclinic Project Lies Abandoned.

We now move to Eikwe in the Western Region, where six years after the sod was cut for a GH¢14 million health infrastructure project, the facility remains uncompleted, leaving residents disappointed and demanding action.

Six years ago, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) promised to expand the St. Martin de Porres Hospital at Eikwe into a modern secondary healthcare facility.

Today, the construction site is overgrown with weeds, the project has been abandoned, and residents of the Ellembelle District are pleading for its completion.

For decades, St. Martin de Porres Hospital has served as a critical healthcare facility for the three Nzema municipalities and even receives patients from neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire.

However, the project meant to strengthen healthcare delivery has now become a symbol of neglect.

On October 16, 2020, then GNPC Board Chairman Freddie Blay and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kofi Koduah Sarpong cut the sod for the GH¢14 million expansion project aimed at upgrading the more than 60-year-old Catholic hospital into a secondary hospital.

However, in 2022, when the project was about 60 percent complete, a change in GNPC’s leadership brought construction to a halt.

Since then, work has not resumed, leaving the partially completed structures abandoned and overtaken by vegetation.

Some community members calls on the
government.

Our reporter catch up the Ellembelle District Chief Executive, Joseph Agyekum, and he says since assuming office, he and the Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, have formally written to GNPC seeking answers on the fate of the project.

Mr. Agyekum also disclosed that the abandoned hospital expansion is not the only stalled GNPC-funded project in the district.

He mentioned several others and appealed to the corporation to expedite the forensic audit it has promised so that all abandoned projects can be completed for the benefit of the people.

End.