Ikono political leader rolls out massive free medical outreach for subjects

The people of Ikono Local Government  Area are about to witness a major and unprecedented intervention in their health care need as their recently appointed and widely endorsed substantive political leader, Elder Emmanuel Ukpong-Udo, popularly called Macaire has offered to sponsor a 5-day comprehensive free medical service for them. The free medical outreach is put together under the aegis of Ikono People’s Consultative Forum in collaboration with AKWA IBOM State Hospitals Management Board. A release signed by a member of the Coordinating Committee for the outreach, Chief Moses AKPAN indicates that the free medical programme will start from Monday, May 25 and run till Friday,

May 29, 2015 at the General Hospital, Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, 9am daily. The release states that the outreach will feature eye surgeries, pterigium, eye excision, lumpectomy, lumpectomy, fibroid, hernia, ovarian cystectomy, appendectomy, ganglion excision, etc. The release further indicated that this maiden edition of the free medical programme is specifically for indigenes of IKONO Local Government Area only, adding that the next phase will accommodate patients from other parts of the state.

In a telephone interview with our reporter, the sponsor of the free medical service, who is the General Manager, Safety and Environment, Intels West Africa, Elder Emmanuel Effiong Ukpong-Udo, said he decided to sponsor the free medical outreach as his modest and practical way of giving back to his immediate community and positively impacting on the lives of his kinsmen, saying the outreach was a pilot scheme which would likely metamorphose into a regular intervention programme for the sick and indigent. He said he decided to put the event together to coincide with when the Governor-elect, Mr Udom Gabriel Emmanuel was about taking over the reigns of government as God’s next will for AKWA IBOM State as a mark of honour to him, especially given the monumental hope he holds for the AKWA IBOM project.

It could be recalled that Elder Ukpong-Udo, who is the Managing Director of Macaire Resorts, a three-star hospitality outfit in the state, was recently unanimously appointed as the Political Leader of Ndiya/Usung Ikot Idaha Ward 8. One week later, the collective leadership of the People’s Democratic Party, Ikono Chapter, at its enlarged session, unanimously adopted him the substantive Political Leader of Ikono, only for the Ikono Legislative Council made up of all the councillors from the eleven wards of the area to throw its weight behind the decision of the Party.

Elder Ukpong-Udo is reputed to have attracted juicy jobs to over 300 Akwa Ibom people in some multinational oil and gas companies in the country. He has also empowered about 70 people with brand new vehicles, extended numerous monetary largesse and other empowerment packages to beneficiaries from different parts of the state. He is said to have been instrumental to the huge success the People’s Democratic Party recorded in the last general election in Ikono.