State House Perm Sec. reacts to First Lady’s comment on Aso Rock clinic

The First Lady also revealed that she had to visit a private clinic after she found out the Aso Rock clinic's X-Ray machine was not working.

In his reaction, Arabi said that the clinic caters for over 100,000 patients, adding that there are times it takes a toll on the supplies.

According to Daily Post, the State House Permanent Secretary also revealed that the clinic did not receive any capital allocation in 2017.

Arabi said “The attention of the presidency has been drawn to recent media reports suggesting that the State House Medical Centre had received N11.01billion as appropriation for the period 2015-2017.

“According to the permanent secretary, State House, Jalal A. Arabi, contrary to the above claims, out of the total capital appropriation of N2.9 billion and recurrent appropriation of N465 million for the period under reference, only the sum of N969 million (representing 32.97%) for capital and N225 million (representing 48.41%) for recurrent was actually released.

“It may interest the public to know that there was zero capital allocation for the medical centre in 2017, while out of the N331 million being the recurrent appropriation for 2017, the actual amount released up to September was N91 million (representing only 27.54%)."

ALSO READ: Health minister reacts to First Lady’s comments on Aso Rock clinic

He also said “In addition, the centre has continued to execute on-going projects.

“Apart from the presidency, other beneficiaries of the free services include political appointees, the military, para-military, other security agencies, members of the national assembly, and the general public.

“Considering the unrestricted patronage base and free services of the State House Medical Centre, coupled with the funding hiccups and periodic receipts, it may not be far-fetched to notice gaps between demand and supply of medical equipment and consumables at certain stages of the budget circle."

Meanwhile, members of the House of Representatives have votedto look into the state of the Aso Rock clinic after Aisha Buhari’s outcry.