Alex Otti lied on Abia health status, says commissioner

The attention of the Abia State Ministry of Health has been drawn to a statement credited to the governorship candidate of a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state, Chief Alex Otti, in the Sun newspaper of Saturday 10th of January, 2015 to the effect that Abia has the highest infant and maternal mortality in Nigeria.
In a statement, the Abia State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Okechukwu Ogah, challenged the APGA governorship candidate to publish his data as well as the source and method of conduct of his research.
The commissioner urged all Abians and men of goodwill to regard such statement as mere propaganda, falsehood and lacking in facts.
He directed all interested to know about the current health profile and statistics of the state to consult such documents as the SMART SURVEY of 2013; the multiple indicator cluster survey of 2011 and data from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency of 2014.
Ogah said the documents supported and endorsed by credible agencies/bodies such as WHO, World Bank, UNFPA and USAID and in which the health profile of Abia State is included, is better than the national profile.
According to him, in one of such reports, the infant mortality for Abia is 74/1000 live births compared to a zonal value of 83/1000 and national value of 97/1000 live births.
He further said that the under-5 mortality of Abia State was put at 116 compared to 132 and 132 and 153 for the zone and nation respectively.
With respect to childhood immunization, the commissioner said the coverage for any immunization in 2014 is 95.5% compared 89.7% for national (as against the national target of 90% ).
DPT3/PENTA 3 performance in Abia for year 2014, the Health Commissioner maintained, was 78.8 as against a national value of 52.2.
Ogah pointed out that one of the sectors the present government, led by Chief T.A. Orji, has made investments is the health sector which has undergone unprecedented transformation since the creation of the state and advised politicians to be constructive in their statements and desist from making assertions without facts.