The wife of the Ebonyi State governor, Mary-Maudline Nwifuru, has paid the medical bills, totalling N3.2 million, for 16 indigent patients at the Alex Ekweme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki.

Mrs Nwifuru paid the bills on Friday when she visited the male and female surgical wards of the facility to mark the Easter celebration.

Speaking to the patients, who were detained by the hospital because they could not pay their bills, she encouraged them not to lose hope in life but to always pray for God’s help.

The initiative formed part of her efforts to provide financial relief to indigent patients facing economic hardship in the state.

The Head of Department, Medical Social Work at the hospital, Dr Sorochi Otu, commended the governor’s wife for her continued philanthropy.

Mrs Nwifuru also paid the bills of indigent patients at the Rehabilitation Programme EFFATA, Ugbodo in Ebonyi Local Government Area.

She further gave some financial assistance to Trinitarian Foundation for Orphans and Helpless, and Juvenile Remand Home during her Easter visits to the facilities.

The Director in charge of EFFATA, Onyibe Nwiboko, and the reverend sister  in charge of the foundation, Mary-Agnes Onyejiechi, expressed gratitude to her for her visit and kind gesture.

In a remark, Head of Department, Child Development in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Emmanuel Nkwuda, lauded her for reconstructing the remand home.

Responding on behalf of the beneficiaries at the EFFATA facility, John Nweke, expressed joy over the visit by the governor’s wife and her distribution of relief materials and gift items to the patients to mark the Easter celebration. 

(NAN)