Baby Named After Otti as Governor Visits Abia PHCs, Pays Patients’ Hospital Bills
By Titus Eleweke
A newborn baby, Alex Okorie, was named after Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, on Friday, October 16, 2026, shortly before the governor arrived at Imerem Primary Health Centre (PHC), Ntigha, in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area, for an on-the-spot assessment of healthcare delivery.
The baby was born to Mr and Mrs Chidiebere Okorie, with the mother, Mrs Chetachi Okorie, delivering the child just minutes before the governor’s arrival at the newly established health facility.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Abia State Governor, Ctz. Ukoha Njoku Ukoha, disclosed this in a statement issued on Friday and shared on his Facebook page.
The birth added a remarkable human-interest moment to Otti’s inspection of functional primary healthcare centres across the state, during which he assessed service delivery, interacted with patients and healthcare workers, and directed officials to address challenges identified at the facilities.
The governor also paid the hospital bills of all patients at the two primary healthcare centres he visited, underscoring his administration’s commitment to improving access to healthcare services and easing the financial burden on patients.
Imerem PHC is among the 200 primary healthcare centres across the 184 wards in Abia’s 17 local government areas that the Otti administration has renovated, retrofitted and equipped under its Project Ekwueme initiative.
The programme is designed to bring quality primary healthcare services closer to residents, particularly those in rural communities, while reducing pressure on secondary and tertiary health facilities.
Located in the rural community of Ntigha, Imerem PHC was built and made operational by the Otti administration in August last year.
The facility has continued to attract patients, a development the state government attributes to improvements in healthcare delivery and renewed public confidence in the state’s healthcare system.
From Imerem, the governor proceeded to Nkwoegwu Primary Health Centre, where he interacted with patients and offered words of encouragement, as he had done at the first facility.
According to the matron in charge of Nkwoegwu PHC, the facility recorded 15 births in September and had already recorded 10 births in October as of the time of the governor’s visit.
Some pregnant women were also in labour during the inspection.
At both health centres, Otti engaged healthcare workers and encouraged them to freely communicate the challenges confronting them so that the government could intervene promptly and improve service delivery.
The workers commended the governor for what they described as significant and verifiable improvements in healthcare delivery across the state. They also drew his attention to challenges requiring government intervention.
In response, Otti directed the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Enoch Ogbonnaya Uche, and other relevant officials to address the identified challenges promptly.
He also pledged to revisit the facilities to ascertain whether his directives had been fully implemented.
The governor was accompanied on the visits by the Commissioner for Health and the Executive Secretary of the Abia State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Kalu Ulu Kalu.
At both facilities, he was received by healthcare workers and residents, some of whom welcomed his entourage with solidarity songs.
At the 2025 Nigeria Governors’ Forum Primary Health Care Leadership Challenge in Abuja, the state emerged as the best-performing state in the South-East and received a cash prize of $500,000, having finished as runner-up in the 2024 edition.
The state government said the governor’s visits underscored his administration’s emphasis on effective service delivery, alongside the provision, renovation and upgrading of healthcare infrastructure across the state.
